British Columbians are consuming less alcohol than they have since the turn of the millennium.

According to new data from the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR), per capita sales in BC were equivalent to 469 standard drinks per person over the age of 15 per year. That is a decrease of 0.82L of pure alcohol per capita (aged 15+). down to 8 L from 8.82L.

This 9% decrease is the largest single-year drop since CISUR started tracking this in 2001/02. Per capita sales have also fallen nearly 15 per cent since the record highs of 2020/21, where sales were at 550 standard drinks per capita, or 9.38L of pure alcohol.

“It is astounding to see this huge change from record highs to record lows in just a few short years,” says Dr. Tim Naimi, CISUR Director. “It’s been kind of a perfect storm of factors that have led to people buying less alcohol.”

Timothy Naimi M.D., M.P.H is the director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and professor at UVic’s Division of Medical Sciences. He is a physician and alcohol epidemiologist from Boston Medical Center (BMC), and was a Professor with the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health. He also is an affiliate professor with UBC's Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine.

Tim’s research interests mostly lie in substance-use epidemiology, particularly binge drinking and the health effects of moderate drinking, with a recent focus on prevention and effective public policies for reducing substance-use-related problems for alcohol and cannabis.