Drinking doubles in Orkney’s young teenagers

March 7, 2023 at 11:52 am

30 per cent of Orcadians aged 13 to 15 say they drink alcohol at least once a week.

Alcohol consumption has doubled among Orkney’s 13 to 15-year-olds since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is according to figures collected by Scotland’s network of network of Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAP).

While the CAP is, this Tuesday, reporting a 56 per cent reduction in weekly drinking for this age group across Orkney and Edinburgh, this is an aggregate statistic.

In the footnotes of the full report by CAP, it indicates that weekly drinking 13 to 15-year-olds has risen by 15 per cent since 2019.

As of 2022, 30 per cent of Orkney residents in this age group reported that they drank alcohol at least once a week, a five per cent reduction since the CAP initiative was launched here in November 2017.