Data on drink figures

Abstract

This 1959 extract from Workers Onward, the magazine produced for Band of Hope workers, shows that statistics of drink-related problems was still used as a key element of temperance teaching for children, over 100 years after the Band of Hope was founded.

£954 millions was spent on Intoxicating Liquors in 1958 which is made up as follows:
Beer £576 Millions
Wines and Spirits £378 Millions

Number of Offence of Drunkenness in 1958 (England and Wales)
60,058
Males 60,216 ; Females 4,842
Under 18 years of age… 1,000
18 and under 21… 5,297
21 and under 30… 15,036
30 and under 60… 39,134
60 and over… 4,591
Total… 65,058

One of Britain’s worst drinking black spots is Manchester, where 2,538 people were convicted of drunkenness in 1958. Of these 285 were under the age of 21, and 52, including one girl, were under the age of 18.

During the last ten years there has been a serious increase in drunkenness amongst young people, even amongst those under 18 years of age.

It is estimated that there are 100,000 chronic alcoholics in this country besides a further 350,000 persons in lesser, but nevertheless definite stages of alcoholism. When on considers the havoc wrought in a family by one alcoholic, it follows that something like one million people in this land have their lives upset by it.