Every tenth Dane drinks too much, they say themselves, according to a new report from the Danish Cancer Society. I’m one of them.
It’s 18- to 29-year-olds and the 60-to-74 age group who drink too much. Young people’s drinking culture looms large in the public conversation, while people over 60 slip a bit under the radar. And among older people, it’s mostly the men who drinks heavily. In other words, exactly the kind of person I am.
According to the report Alcohol habits in Denmark 2025, young people’s drinking habits are tied to social pressure. Something about new educational programs, parties, and boyfriends or girlfriends. But for me and my peers, it’s about red wine, street parties, and draft beer after a game of pétanque. Oh, right – and we’re no longer having our natural thirst interrupted by children who need tending to.
The old alcohol regime
»Young people still hold first place when it comes to heavy drinking, but the trend is slightly downward. On the other hand, we talk very little about the high consumption in the baby boomer generation. They’re still on ’the old regime’, where alcohol was always on the agenda«, says Professor Janne Tolstrup of the National Institute of Public Health at the University of Southern Denmark, who specializes in alcohol habits and prevention.
She, too, remembers beginning her university years with an orientation trip where students were ranked in a Tour de France-style classification according to how many beers they had drunk, with chances to score extra points on designated sprint stages.
The most surprising thing in the Danish Cancer Society report is that only 7 percent of Danes know what the Danish Health Authority recommends. The limit is a maximum of 10 drinks a week, and no more than 4 drinks in a single evening.
Men used to be allotted more drinks over the course of a week, but under ’the new regime’, which took effect in March 2022, the sexes are treated equally.
The report also shows that those of us who drink the most are also the most motivated to cut back on alcohol. I felt that in my own swollen body in April, when after weeks of skiing followed by weissbier, I had to wear sweatpants to work.
I saw the boomer staring back at me in my bloodshot eyes and quit cold turkey. Today I haven’t had alcohol for 20 weeks, and I’ve lost 10 kilos. So I must have been thirsty. And it was surprisingly easy once I said the forbidden words: no thanks.
Your mouth says no
In the Danish Cancer Society report, only half of the more than 3,000 people interviewed (52 percent) say we have a culture where it’s okay to say no to alcohol. The rest think it ruins the party if you’re sitting there poking at a soda.
But 6 out of 10 – mostly women – think too much alcohol is being consumed. And 9 out of 10 (92 percent) wish we had a culture where saying no was accepted.
For me personally, the hardest thing as a newly sober teetotaler was going to a party with Politiken’s employee association in May. I got a few sideways glances and comments about my alcohol-free Special Effects beer, but after that I was left alone.
That was because they had all gone out to chain-smoke and party on the rooftop terrace in the Meatpacking District in Copenhagen.
So that’s one of the side effects I’ve experienced from saying no. Drunk people are actually funniest when you are too.
Alcohol researcher Janne Tolstrup agrees that no is a hard word. Because it means turning your back on the social rules, and she admits that she herself would find it hard to ask for a Coke if she were invited to a party.
»If you’re new to a course of study, or if I’m meeting up with some old friends, there’s a sociological script. We gather to drink. It creates community. And if there are two people sitting there who don’t drink, then you’ve stepped outside the script«.
She says some of her non-drinking friends have given her the tip that you should carry a glass with something nonalcoholic in it so you have something to toast with.
»Then people don’t think about it and stop asking«.
We’re not getting any wiser
So the big question is whether we – old and young alike – get any wiser over time. As we gradually learn the drinking limits and hear the Danish Cancer Society’s message that 1,000 alcohol-related cancer cases could have been prevented each year.
If you ask the researcher in her office on Studiestræde in the city centre of Copenhagen, the answer is:
»No. Not in a million years«. But fortunately, we have started living differently, Janne Tolstrup believes:
»We don’t go out as much as we used to. There are probably more people now who are aware that they have something to do the next day. Many feel there’s more pressure in everyday life. And then there are many who, like you, are sober curious and trying to explore what’s really at stake with alcohol and in relationships«.
The Danish Cancer Society’s report suggests that the respondents, all of them over 18, are very focused on making it harder for young people to drink. Half support setting the legal age for buying alcohol at 18. Today, 16- to 18-year-olds can buy beverages containing up to 6 percent alcohol.
But the biggest obstacle to giving young people a healthier alcohol culture is their parents, Janne Tolstrup believes.
»They say no to buying alcohol when you’re under 18. But when it comes to their own 15- or 16-year-olds, suddenly they let them take a little along to the ninth-grade party, because they have to learn before they get to high school«.
The idea is that you have to »learn to handle your drunkenness« after ending up completely wasted a couple of times.
»It’s completely insane«, says the behavioral researcher.
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