7 Charts About British Drinking That You Might Not Expect

Young people are so distressingly well-behaved these days.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released the latest data on how Britain drinks. A lot of it isn't exactly what you might expect.

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The data is from 2014, and is based on interviews from a sample of 2,000 households across Britain.

1. For instance, older people are bigger drinkers than young people.

ONS / BuzzFeed / Via ons.gov.uk

People aged 16 to 24 are the least likely to have drunk at all in the last week, and the least likely to have drunk several times in the last week.

2. Similarly, better-educated people tend to drink more often than the rest of the population.

ONS / BuzzFeed / Via ons.gov.uk

Note: For simplicity, we haven't included the stats for people with ONCs, BTECs, and other non-standard qualifications.

3. And bosses tend to drink more than the people who work for them.

ONS / BuzzFeed / Via ons.gov.uk

4. In general, people who are better off drink more than poorer people.

ONS / BuzzFeed / Via ons.gov.uk

No doubt that's partly because they can afford to, of course.

5. Smug marrieds drink more than singletons.

ONS / BuzzFeed / Via ons.gov.uk

Proving that Bridget Jones's Diary is not 100% statistically accurate.

6. Londoners drink more frequently than Scots.

ONS / BuzzFeed / Via ons.gov.uk

Although it's worth noting that Scots are more likely both to have drunk, and to have drunk a large amount, at least once in the previous week.

7. And young people are getting more abstemious.

ONS / BuzzFeed / Via ons.gov.uk

In case you think the kids are going to hell in a handcart – they're actually much less likely to drink regularly than their parents were.