More and more Brits are boozing at home, according to exclusive reasearch for The Grocer. A third of us now drink more at home than we do when we’re out on the town, with 20% admitting to exceeding the government’s recommended guidelines every day or most days.

Almost 20% of Brits admit to drinking a whole bottle of wine or more by themselves in one go, yet only 4% are concerned about the amount of alcohol they drink, a poll of 2,061 consumers by Harris Interactive reveals. And it’s not just wine we’re reluctant to share. Of the 40% of Brits who buy 660ml ’sharing’ bottles of lager, half say they regularly polish them off by themselves.

“Yet it seems most people think they have their drinking under control,” says Lucia Juliano, head of fmcg & retail research at Harris Interactive. “It raises the question as to whether consumers recognise the volume of alcohol they are consuming.”

Those most likely to indulge in domestic drinking are the over 45s and those in AB socio-economic groups, confirming the stereotype that affluent people enjoy a tipple at home most evenings. One concerning attitude is amongst those under 25, where 12% believe it’s okay to exceed advised alcohol limits if you eat healthily and exercise.

“Clearly this is the age when we all think we are invincible and outside of this age group the proportion of people who believe this becomes negligible,” says Juliano, who highlights the number of people who drink sharing bottles of beer to themselves as another concern.“Given these can often be higher abv beers that is certainly a lot of alcohol in one sitting.”

The poll also found that while 16% of Brits regularly drink home alone, with this number increasing to 20% amongst 45 to 54-year-old men. People living in Scotland and the North West are the least likely to be teetotal, with 17% saying they do not drink. Conversely, a third of people in the east of England say they do not drink alcohol. 

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