Abuse/Addiction

How are the drinking and smoking habits of Danes?

Note: Below, we provide links to Statistics Denmark and others who make statistics on the subject. In some instances, the sources referred to below have content in Danish only or limited content in English.

Statistics Denmark’s StatBank has tables on the Sales of alcohol and tobacco, and some of the tables offer data back to 1921.

Other historical time series on the consumption of alcohol and cigarettes (1945-2010) and on daily smokers (1953-2012) are available in Statistics Denmark’s publication "65 år i tal - Danmark siden 2. verdenskrig” (in Danish). Clicking the figures in the publication opens an Excel file with the underlying figures:

• Get the publication "65 år i tal - Danmark siden 2. verdenskrig" (2014) on our website

Other sources of data on alcohol

The Danish Health Authority:

• Theme page on Alcohol (in English). More information on the Danish version of the Alkohol theme page - where, among other things, there is information on young people's alcohol consumption (in Danish). 
• See e.g. the Danish part of The European School Survey Project (in Danish) on 15-16 year-old's relationship to alcohol, smoking and drugs
• The Danish Health Data Authority publishes statistics on alcohol: alkoholstatistik (in Danish), which include sickness rates, treatment and expenditure. Furthermore, they publish a selection of analyses on e.g. secondary complications

VIVE - the Danish Center for Social Science Research:

• The survey on socioeconomic costs associated with alcohol overconsumption "Samfundsøkonomiske omkostninger forbundet med alkoholoverforbrug" (2014) (in Danish)
• The report on municipal costs associated with excess consumption of alcohol "Kommunale omkostninger forbundet med overforbrug af alkohol, nr. 3" (2017) (in Danish)

Other sources of data on tobacco and smoking

The Danish Health Authority: 

• Theme page on tobacco and nicotine – Tobak og nikotin (in Danish) where, among other things, there is information about young people's use of smokeless nicotine products (in Danish)
• Smoking habits in Denmark are examined annually (in Danish)

Kræftens Bekæmpelse (the Danish Cancer Society): 

• Information on tobacco and smoking habits – tobak og rygevaner (in Danish)

VIVE - the Danish Center for Social Science Research:

• Report on the costs of smoking in a lifetime perspective – "Omkostninger ved rygning i et livstidsperspektiv" (2019) (in Danish)

More on drugs and addiction

VIVE and researchers from Copenhagen University have collaborated on the project "Youths, Drugs and Alcohol":

• In 2018, the results of the 10-year longitudinal study were published in the report "Unge, alkohol og stoffer – et tiårigt forløbsstudie“ (in Danish)

The national health profile 2021, “Den Nationale Sundhedsprofil 2021” (in Danish), includes information on smoking and alcohol consumption:

• The results of the survey are available in a database as well as in a publication (both in Danish)

The Danish Health Authority has published three reports on the burden disease in Denmark in 2023 - "Sygdomsbyrden i Danmark" (in Danish). In the reports, e.g. the occurence and the consequences of (abuse of) i.a. alcohol and smoking.

The Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research publishes reports (mainly in Danish) as well as scientific contributions (in English) on many different aspects of addiction to alcohol and drugs:

What is the drug situation in Denmark?

Since 2004, the Danish Health Authority has monitored and published reports annually on the drug situation in Denmark: Narkotikasituationen i Danmark (in Danish).

See also the Health Authority’s other pages on drugs:

• Theme page on drugs – Stoffer (in Danish)
• Publications on drug abuse – stofmisbrug (in Danish)

Statistics Denmark has information on the social drug abuse treatment offered by municipalities and providers of treatment:

• Introduction to the statistics on Drug abuse treatment
• Tables in StatBank Denmark

International cooperation on drugs

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is an organisation under the EU that has data on drugs and drug abuse in Europe:

• See data at their website
• See national reports on drug abuse in the separate countries

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) publishes data on drugs on a global level:

• See e.g. the annual "World Drug Report"
• Other data on drugs

[This page was last reviewed in March 2023]