In 2022, 14.7% of the Swiss population said that in the previous year, they had engaged in binge drinking at least once a month: 10.7% of women and 18.9% of men. In 2017, this figure was 15.9% of the total population.
Binge drinking is more common among younger age groups, peaking in the 20‒24 age bracket at 29.9% (2022). People with a compulsory school-leaving qualification (5.3%) are less likely to drink larger quantities of alcohol on a single occasion than those with an upper-secondary (12.7%) or tertiary qualification (15.7%).
This indicator is part of the Monitoring System Addiction and NCD (MonAM) of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).
Drinking large amounts of alcohol on a single occasion (episodic heavy alcohol consumption, also known as binge drinking) can have serious health consequences. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported in 2018 that alcohol contributes to more than 200 diseases and injury-related health conditions, including liver disease, traffic accidents, violence, cancer, cardiovascular disease, suicide, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS (WHO, 2018). Moderate alcohol consumption combined with binge drinking also increases the risk of coronary heart diseases compared with moderate alcohol consumption without binge drinking (Leong et al., 2014; Roerecke et al., 2014).
This indicator was calculated on the basis of data from the Swiss Health Survey (SHS, n2022 ≈ 22 000) and is updated every five years.
It shows the share of persons aged 15 and older, living in private households, who in the previous 12 months drank four (for women) or five (for men) standard units of an alcoholic beverage on a single occasion at least once a month. A standard unit (= one glass of beer/wine etc.) is equal to 10 to 12 g of pure alcohol.
Federal Office of Public Health FOPH
Tel. +41 58 462 95 05
media@bag.admin.ch
Tel. +41 58 463 60 45
obsan@bfs.admin.ch
https://www.obsan.admin.ch/en/contact