Key Points

Daily Alcohol Consumption

• In 2021, 6.8% of adults aged 18–75 reported drinking alcohol daily; this proportion has decreased significantly since 2017, when it stood at 11.2%, reaching a level in 2021 equivalent to that of France as a whole (8%).

• This significant decline applies to both men and women, people aged 61–75, those with high incomes, and also those with an educational attainment level of a high school diploma or lower.

Heavy Episodic Drinking (HED)

• In 2021, 14.8% of adults aged 18–75 reported having monthly heavy drinking episodes; this proportion has not changed significantly since 2017, but is significantly lower than the national average (16.5%).

• Men continue to be more affected than women.

Exceeding low-risk drinking guidelines

• In 2021, 20.6% of adults aged 18 to 75 reported exceeding low-risk drinking guidelines, a proportion equivalent to the national level (22.0%).

• These exceedances affect men more, as well as people with medium or high incomes.

Emergency room visits directly related to alcohol

• In 2023, nearly 24,000 emergency room visits directly related to alcohol were recorded in Hauts-de-France, compared to 22,000 in 2017. These visits thus accounted for 1.59% of all emergency room visits in the region (vs. 1.08% nationally).

• In 2023, the rate of emergency room visits directly related to alcohol was higher among men (2.28%) than among women (0.87%), and it was higher among those aged 46–60 (3.92%) and those aged 31–45 (2.90%).