The Finns and alcohol

A leading Finnish evening paper, Iltalehti, today reports that we Finns have broken another record. Not such a good one this time, since we've become the highest consumers of alcohol in the Nordic Countries. Only the Danes used to be more thirsty than us Finns, but now it's just the Irish, Czechs and Hungarians in Europe who gulp down more than 10 litres of alcohol per person in a year.

Even the units are bigger in Finland than they are in the UK. We ex-pats joke that a Finnish unit is a bottle of wine, whereas the British one is a small glass. But it's actually not the unit size that's different but the amount that according to the Finnish government constitutes excessive alcohol use. A weekly amount should in Finland not exceed 24 units for men and 16 units for women. This in the UK is 21 and 14. It appears we Finns truly can take more alcohol than our British counterparts.

Kippis!