Key points
- Just under 2m adults in Wales drink alcohol, averaging 610 units a year, costing £607
- Almost three quarters them drink within the UK guidelines of 14 units a week
- Nevertheless around 777 deaths and 35,637 hospital admissions are directly caused by alcohol
- Blood pressure accounts for 13,000 hospital admissions, mental health problems 9,000, liver disease 4,000 and cancer 2,000
- Around 24% of drinkers drink at the potentially hazardous level of between 14 and 50 units a week for men and 14 to 35 units for women
- And 4% of drinkers exceed these hazardous levels, practically guaranteeing harm
- Hazardous and harmful drinkers together make up 28% of the drinking population, but consume 75% of alcohol units
- The most deprived tend to drink less than average but suffer more, experiencing three times as many deaths as the best off
- Moderate drinkers buy less than a quarter of their alcohol for under 50p a unit, while harmful drinkers buy almost a half
- More units of off-trade wine are sold below 50p a unit than any other beverage
- Modelling suggests harmful drinkers would see the biggest change if a 50p minimum unit price is introduced, with a 7% reduction in the units they consume, the equivalent of 110 large beers a year, and a £48 increase rise in yearly spending
- The impact on moderate drinkers would be minimal, with an estimated reduction in annual consumption of 2.4 units, the amount in one large beer, and an increased annual spending of £3
- For every 100,000 harmful drinkers the model suggests a 50p minimum unit price would avoid 56 deaths and 688 hospital admissions each year
- Over two-thirds of the lives saved would be those of harmful drinkers