Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > World Forums > World
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 10-15-2014, 05:47 PM
 
Location: Brisbane
5,037 posts, read 7,453,234 times
Reputation: 4494

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by danielsa1775 View Post
For Australia

What estimated proportion of the adult population drinks? - Maybe 80% would drink at some stage

Is it socially acceptable to drink, and if so, how much? - Yes, how much depends on the occasion.

Is a bottle of wine or liquor a gift you would give to most anyone and assume that that's OK? - Yes

What social problems if any are associated with drinking and how bad are they? - We have big problems with Binge Drinkers, so you get fights etc as a result, though the number of car accidents from drinking is coming down

What are your alcohol and drinking laws and how strictly are they enforced? - 18 is the age, it is quite strictly enforced at pubs/clubs and bottle shops, which does not stop under-aged people from obtaining alcohol from their parents or friends over age.

When do young people typically start drinking (with and without parental permission)? 14-20, some maybe younger.

To dispel a couple of old Stereotypes that might be still around from the 1970's, Australia is per capita a mid ranking Alcohol consuming country among the OECD (and the same as the UK and Switzerland), and Alcohol consumption from beer has fallen quite dramatically over the last 40 years, in 2014 an Aussie will be just as likely to have a glass of wine as a beer.


List of countries by alcohol consumption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The rise of Australia as a wine nation
On that matter, Fosters is primarily a British beer. The Australian company (It's no longer Australian Owned Either) that brews Fosters, sells a lot of different beers in Australia, but very little under the name of Fosters.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-15-2014, 08:46 PM
 
Location: Gatineau, QC, Canada
3,379 posts, read 5,514,992 times
Reputation: 4438
Most people probably drink here in Northern Ontario. It is of course socially acceptable to drink, normally on weekends or after work and at dinners. Most people prefer beer. Teenieboppers go through their phase of spirits and orange juice/cola until they realize they don't have to shred their throat lining to get drunk. Beer and wine enter around age 20.

Alcoholic gifts are among the best kind. You just have to be careful that you aren't dealing with one of these annoying lecturing squares who tell you about how bad anything that alters the mind is right before they ask you if you wanna go for a few rounds of coffee next Tuesday.

Alcoholism can be a problem. There is a large blue collared population here who seem to descend from alcoholic after alcoholic, so it's hard for some people to break the cycle. I wouldn't say it's an enormous issue though.

In Ontario you can drink by 19 years old. However, the province has an absolute monopoly on liquor which can only be sold by licenced outlets (of which there are 2: LCBO (liquor control board of Ontario) or The Beer Store (owned by the LCBO) and then some random wine shops here and there). I absolutely despise this system as you pay out of your yingyang for a single beer just because you have to, and this is exactly why Canadians never shut up about how beer is cheaper than bottled water on their first Euro trip. It's pretty bad, and interestingly people actually think the LCBO keeps prices down and that privatizing the liquour industry would 'raise the prices'. There was recently some push to allow convenience stores to sell certain liquors around the province, and the resulting LCBO lobby was the most childish thing I've seen in a long while. It got me so heated.

Kids start drinking in highschool, illegally, pretty well immediately during first year, just after a short moral dilemma about how alcohol and drugs are changing the peers they thought they knew. It gets a little wild between then and their final year of highschool, but everyone seems to balance out pretty much a couple of years after becoming legal.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-15-2014, 09:43 PM
 
14,771 posts, read 17,062,845 times
Reputation: 20658
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesse44 View Post
Most people probably drink here in Northern Ontario. It is of course socially acceptable to drink, normally on weekends or after work and at dinners. Most people prefer beer. Teenieboppers go through their phase of spirits and orange juice/cola until they realize they don't have to shred their throat lining to get drunk. Beer and wine enter around age 20.

Alcoholic gifts are among the best kind. You just have to be careful that you aren't dealing with one of these annoying lecturing squares who tell you about how bad anything that alters the mind is right before they ask you if you wanna go for a few rounds of coffee next Tuesday.

Alcoholism can be a problem. There is a large blue collared population here who seem to descend from alcoholic after alcoholic, so it's hard for some people to break the cycle. I wouldn't say it's an enormous issue though.

In Ontario you can drink by 19 years old. However, the province has an absolute monopoly on liquor which can only be sold by licenced outlets (of which there are 2: LCBO (liquor control board of Ontario) or The Beer Store (owned by the LCBO) and then some random wine shops here and there). I absolutely despise this system as you pay out of your yingyang for a single beer just because you have to, and this is exactly why Canadians never shut up about how beer is cheaper than bottled water on their first Euro trip. It's pretty bad, and interestingly people actually think the LCBO keeps prices down and that privatizing the liquour industry would 'raise the prices'. There was recently some push to allow convenience stores to sell certain liquors around the province, and the resulting LCBO lobby was the most childish thing I've seen in a long while. It got me so heated.

Kids start drinking in highschool, illegally, pretty well immediately during first year, just after a short moral dilemma about how alcohol and drugs are changing the peers they thought they knew. It gets a little wild between then and their final year of highschool, but everyone seems to balance out pretty much a couple of years after becoming legal.
lol


How much is a single beer?

Last edited by artemis agrotera; 10-15-2014 at 10:51 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-15-2014, 11:52 PM
 
Location: Westminster, London
872 posts, read 1,381,517 times
Reputation: 726
Alcohol use and binge drinking is very prevalent here, though I've noticed a very gradual trend towards it being seen as more socially unacceptable in formal company.

On the other end of the spectrum, young people often start drinking before college and in excess because it's seen as a rite of passage to adulthood. Alcoholic liver disease among young people is exploding in the UK.

As for me, becoming a Christian changed me profoundly. Among other things, I no longer drink, nor do I have the urge to drink, nor do I get a buzz from drinking (oddly enough).

Unfortunately, I don't think many people will ever get to experience first hand the benefits of being teetotal, in terms of general fitness and mental sharpness.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-16-2014, 05:03 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,786 posts, read 37,782,011 times
Reputation: 11561
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissionIMPOSSIBRU View Post

As for me, becoming a Christian changed me profoundly. Among other things, I no longer drink, nor do I have the urge to drink, nor do I get a buzz from drinking (oddly enough).

Unfortunately, I don't think many people will ever get to experience first hand the benefits of being teetotal, in terms of general fitness and mental sharpness.
Interesting a few have mentioned Christianity and not drinking on here. Most of the people here who are Christians are Catholics (practising or semi-practising) and they drink as much as anyone else. Anyway, there is no discernible difference in their behaviour with alcohol. Lebanese Christians like Maronites and Greek Orthodox (the most common groups after Catholics here I think) also drink.

Even most of the Catholic priests I have known will drink, though not to excess generally (though I did know a few alcoholic priests when I was a kid).
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-16-2014, 06:23 AM
 
Location: Gorgeous Scotland
4,105 posts, read 5,531,174 times
Reputation: 3351
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Interesting a few have mentioned Christianity and not drinking on here. Most of the people here who are Christians are Catholics (practising or semi-practising) and they drink as much as anyone else. Anyway, there is no discernible difference in their behaviour with alcohol. Lebanese Christians like Maronites and Greek Orthodox (the most common groups after Catholics here I think) also drink.

Even most of the Catholic priests I have known will drink, though not to excess generally (though I did know a few alcoholic priests when I was a kid).
That's ludicrous! Look at the Republic of Ireland and all the pubs. Almost everyone is Catholic.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-16-2014, 06:38 AM
 
Location: Finland
6,418 posts, read 7,219,877 times
Reputation: 10435
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Interesting a few have mentioned Christianity and not drinking on here. Most of the people here who are Christians are Catholics (practising or semi-practising) and they drink as much as anyone else. Anyway, there is no discernible difference in their behaviour with alcohol. Lebanese Christians like Maronites and Greek Orthodox (the most common groups after Catholics here I think) also drink.

Even most of the Catholic priests I have known will drink, though not to excess generally (though I did know a few alcoholic priests when I was a kid).
Most Christians I knew in the UK drank, although they tended not to get sh*tfaced generally the ones that didn't drink, didn't drink for personal reasons rather than religious reasons. If a Christian starts to moan to me about alcohol I just mention Ecclesiastes with its numerous wine references (easily my favourite book of the bible )
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-16-2014, 07:03 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,786 posts, read 37,782,011 times
Reputation: 11561
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ameriscot View Post
That's ludicrous! Look at the Republic of Ireland and all the pubs. Almost everyone is Catholic.
I totally agree, but we've had a few people on this thread who have mentioned not drinking personally or that drinking is not that common in certain parts of countries have cited Christian/religious reasons for this. None of them have been from the Republic of Ireland though.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-16-2014, 07:07 AM
 
Location: Finland
24,144 posts, read 24,706,169 times
Reputation: 11103
Quote:
Originally Posted by kronan123 View Post
what would you say is the biggest difference between finland and sweden when it comes to alcohol consumption? you've talked about "professional alcoholics" earlier, so i'm kind of curious. and finns drink significantly more statistically.
Honestly, I don't think there are any differences. Maybe the alcohol rehab is much better in Sweden. As I said, 50% of all alcohol used is consumed by 10% of the population, so 90% of the populace dring quite moderately. Maybe alcohol is more stigmatized in Sweden. I don't know, as I haven't seen any big differences. Same binge drinking in both countries.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gentoo View Post
Alcohol also has a negative stigma attached to it. Not seen all the time but it's there. When an American drinks as much as any European, he has a drinking problem and needs to seek help. The average Finn would be an alcoholic all day in the US.
Well, that's a bit harsh. Alcohol is stigmatized here as well, and the stereotype of a heavy-drinking Finn is much, well, a stereotype. While it's true that Finns generally may handle large amounts of alcohol at a time, it is definitely not acceptable to be drunk all the time, and many people don't drink a drop of alcohol during weekdays.

Quote:
Originally Posted by barneyg View Post
I thought it was strange, I mean Tallinn is a good place for a drink (or ten)...
That's because alcohol in Estonia cost a fraction of what it costs in Finland. People take day-cruises to Tallinn to buy their stores full of alcohol. Nevertheless, that is comparing regular English alcohol use by spending a day on Ibiza, it's not the norm. Being drunk and disorderly in Tallinn is a sort of embarrassing for many here, and it's mostly the lower classes who do this. Most people including me consider it quite trashy.

I'm appearing a bit defensive here, but I want to lose a bit the old stereotype that everyone is drunk here all the time, because it's not true. On an European scale, Finns consume alcohol pretty much the EU average, not more, not less. Appear drunk at work, and it will be your last day, or you're sent to rehab. There's no wet meetings here, and having a beer at lunch hour is not acceptable at all. As I said drunk-driving is severely enforced, and during the last 30 years or so, the situations where you're acceptable to appear drunk have becomed less. Youngsters drink less than 20 years ago, and being totally wasted is considered embarrassing.

Alcoholism is a problem in this country, and it's often equipped with social exclusion. Middle-aged men who have been unemployed for a long time have a big risk, especially if they are divorced. Depression is also a big factor. The poorer your education is, the more a risk. Also recently retired people have a higher risk to abuse alcohol, if they drop down emply with nothing to do after their career.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ben86 View Post
When I was in my last year of high school it used to be the thing to go to the pub on Friday lunchtimes. We didn't have enough time for more than about two pints, but at that age even that would be enough to be fairly tipsy for the rest of the afternoon. It would have been obvious from our school uniforms that at least some of us were under 18, but I don't remember it ever being a problem getting served. The teachers surely must have known what was going on, but none of them ever said anything about it.

Would that be accepted in your country? I get the impression that you'd be a lot less likely to get away with that here now than 10-12 years ago when I'm talking about, though it felt pretty weird to be getting away with it then.
When I was a teenager, there were some shady joints who didn't ask for ID and served to minors. But even in a city of the size of Helsinki, there were just a few of them, and the established were well-known. Now 15 years later, I believe those locations are more or less nonexistant, as if caught they will lose their liquor licence.

A couple of my friends came straight to school from a cruise, and they were apparenly drunk / hung over. They were quietly sent home to recover. They were 18 so there weren't any consequences, but if they would've been minors, the school should've been obliged to inform the parents.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-16-2014, 07:11 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,786 posts, read 37,782,011 times
Reputation: 11561
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natsku View Post
generally the ones that didn't drink, didn't drink for personal reasons rather than religious reasons.
The people I know who don't drink (except for a few Muslims) do so for personal as opposed to religious reasons: either they used to drink at one point but drank way too much so they don't trust themselves with any booze anymore, or they had an alcoholic abusive member of their family and this turned them off alcohol or even made them afraid of it.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > World Forums > World
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:56 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top