Swedes' alcohol consumption is falling

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Alcohol consumption in Sweden is falling despite an increase in Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly's sales, a researcher says.

Mats Ramstedt of the Centreefor Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs at Stockholm University, says this has actually been the trend for quite some time. Alcohol consumption has fallen continuously in the period from 2004 to 2009, but over the same period Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly's sales went up by 22 percent, Ramstedt says.

Ramstedt says the reason alcohol consumption is falling but alcohol sales are increasing is that Swedes are consuming less and less alcohol from abroad, but the Center for Social Research on Alcohol and Drug data includes smuggled spirits as well as legal imports and Internet orders.

"In order to get a true picture of how much alcohol Swedish people drink it is important to take the whole alcohol market into consideration," Ramstedt says in a statement.

Ramstedt's study used data based on the center's interviews of 18,000 people a year and research by Statistics Sweden on household expenses that included alcoholic beverages as an area of consumption for 2,000 people.