Rate of Under-Age Drinking Falls to Lowest Level Since Records Began in 1988

It's popular to run down the younger generation. So in the interests of accuracy, it's only fair to show that that tendency is often misplaced.

For example, the government's Health & Social Care information Centre published some statistics in 2014 on under-age drinking amongst the nation's school children which show that the proportion of kids indulging in under-age drinking has fallen to lowest level since records began in 1988 (the blue line is for boys, the red is for girls and the green is for total):

Source: HSCIC Figures

The proportion was 62% in 1988, which has since fallen steadily to 39% by 2013.

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association put the changes down to industry-led initiatives like Challenge 25 and Community Alcohol Partnerships, which are targeted at tackling under-age drinking, but then I suppose they would take the credit!

Let's give the benefit of the doubt to kids these days being more responsible than their forebears.