{"id":8481,"date":"2026-05-27T14:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/?p=7658011"},"modified":"2026-05-27T14:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:15:19","slug":"in-numbers-bc-interior-leads-the-province-for-heavy-drinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/news\/8481\/in-numbers-bc-interior-leads-the-province-for-heavy-drinking\/","title":{"rendered":"iN NUMBERS: BC Interior leads the province for heavy drinking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Overall fewer British Columbians are drinking booze, but the Interior has the highest rates for heavy drinking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.gov.bc.ca\/gov\/content\/health\/about-bc-s-health-care-system\/office-of-the-provincial-health-officer\/reports-publications\/annual-reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">annual report from the Officer of the Provincial Health Officer<\/a> found that alcohol consumption is down from its peak in 2020, but people in the Interior are still drinking far more than is medically advisable. <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/news\/7658035\/bc-alcohol-use-hits-20-year-low-but-remains-above-national-and-recommended-levels\/\">Dr. Bonnie Henry says that when it comes to alcohol \u201cless is best.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are the numbers from the report using the latest data as of 2023:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>8.8: <\/strong>Standard drinks a week. That\u2019s the average alcohol consumption for B.C. residents.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>2:<\/strong> Standard drinks a week is the recommended maximum to avoid alcohol related risks. Some boring, party-pooping doctors apparently want to keep people healthy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>13.4: <\/strong>Standard drinks a week. That\u2019s how much people in the Interior Health region drank in 2023-2024. The most for any region in B.C.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>29: <\/strong>Per cent of people in the B.C. Interior reported binge drinking, having five or more drinks on one occasion, in the past year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>38:<\/strong> Per cent of British Columbians between ages 12 and 19 have tried alcohol. That\u2019s a 20-year low in the province.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>50:<\/strong> Per cent of youth ages 12 to 19 in the B.C. Interior have tried alcohol. Only Northern B.C. has a higher rate, 52 per cent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>29:<\/strong> Per cent of higher income drinkers reported drinking heavily.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>166:<\/strong> Alcohol-caused hospitalizations per 100,000 people in high income areas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>20: <\/strong>Per cent of low income drinkers reported heavy drinking.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>411:<\/strong> Alcohol-caused hospitalizations per 100,000 people in low income areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says when it comes to alcohol \u201cless is best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":547,"featured_media":8463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"","source":"","byline":"","published":"","updated":"","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1810,706,704],"tags":[],"region":[547,548,549,550],"class_list":["post-8481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local","category-topnews","region-kamloops","region-kelowna","region-penticton","region-vernon"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"post_modified":"2026-05-27T14:15:19","post_modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:15:19","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/inwine-MediaItemID106255-7679.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8481"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=8481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}