Drinkaware says 8 million people in the UK drink above low-risk alcohol guidelines

Drinkaware said on Tuesday, November 3, that about 8 million people in the UK are drinking at what it calls “increasing-risk” levels, a category that sits above official low-risk guidance but below the highest-risk levels of consumption.

The finding comes from the group’s 2026 Drinkaware Monitor and points to a large group of drinkers whose habits are often seen as normal, even though Drinkaware says this level of consumption warrants more prevention attention. According to the data, 18% of UK drinkers reported drinking at increasing-risk levels in the week before the survey. By comparison, 4% were in the high-risk category and 78% were within low-risk guidelines.

Drinkaware argues that the size of the group makes it a major target for prevention efforts as the UK government moves toward a stronger focus on preventing illness in its 10 Year Health Plan for England. The organization said that addressing this segment could bring significant public health gains and reduce pressure on public services, including the National Health Service.

Under the UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidance, low-risk drinking means no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, which Drinkaware said is roughly equal to six pints of beer or six medium glasses of wine. In the group identified as increasing-risk drinkers, women were consuming 15 to 35 units a week and men 15 to 50 units a week.

The report suggests this group is large but not evenly spread across the population. Drinkaware said 68% of increasing-risk drinkers are men, 47% are 55 or older, 32% are retired and 30% are from higher socioeconomic groups. The organization said this profile helps explain why the group is often missed in debates that focus more on dependency or the most severe forms of alcohol harm.

Much of the report centers on the gap between how people drink and how they judge the risk of their drinking. Drinkaware said 58% of increasing-risk drinkers had tried to cut back over the previous 12 months, and 93% said they were taking some steps to moderate their alcohol use. Even so, the organization said this group is three times more likely than low-risk drinkers to return to earlier levels of consumption after trying to reduce drinking.

At the same time, 63% of increasing-risk drinkers described themselves as “a fairly normal drinker,” and the same share, 63%, said they were not worried about the effect their drinking could have on their future health. Drinkaware said many in this group believe their alcohol use is balanced out by other healthy habits or do not think they drink enough to create a serious long-term problem.

The data also points to the role of social habits and routine. Among increasing-risk drinkers who had not tried to cut back in the previous 12 months, 41% said they did not feel a need to change because people around them drank in similar ways. Drinkaware said that pattern shows how drinking above low-risk guidance can become accepted in everyday life rather than being seen as a warning sign.

The survey found that alcohol use in this group goes beyond social events. Drinkaware said increasing-risk drinkers are three times more likely than low-risk drinkers to regularly drink at home alone and four times more likely to say alcohol is part of how they relax at the end of the day. That suggests that, for many people, drinking is tied to daily routines as much as to nights out or special occasions.

Karen Tyrell, Drinkaware’s chief executive, said the government needs to look beyond the most visible forms of alcohol harm if it wants to help people live healthier lives longer and ease future pressure on the NHS. She said the findings show that moderation is shaped by routines, social expectations and the environments in which people drink, and that any response will need to address those wider influences.

Drinkaware also said it sees room for cooperation with businesses across the alcohol market. That could matter for brewers, distillers, winemakers and retailers in the UK because the findings suggest that prevention may depend less on targeting only extreme drinking and more on how ordinary, repeated consumption is presented, marketed and discussed. The data may also inform responsible-drinking campaigns and product, labeling or customer-information strategies in a major beverage market, although any such effect will depend on how policymakers and companies respond.

The organization said it is already running prevention-focused programs and practical advice tools with industry partners and linked that work to a broader goal of reducing the number of risky drinkers by 2 million by 2030. The release did not include detailed survey methodology, such as the sample size or margin of error, in the text announcing the findings.

Drinkaware said the full report is available on its website, along with its online Drinking Check tool for people who want to assess their alcohol use.