Authors

• Österberg, Esa (National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES). Alcohol and Drug Research Group)

Keywords

alcohol smuggling, alcohol use, drinking behaviour, drinking offences

Abstract

The survey charted the extent of unrecorded alcohol consumption and production in Finland. First, the respondents were asked how often they drank alcohol and how often they had consumed pure alcohol or home-made alcohol, such as moonshine or home-brewed beer in the previous 12 months. Those who had produced alcohol themselves were asked to state the amount (in litres) they had produced in the previous 12 months. Percentage of home-made or privately imported alcohol out of all consumed alcohol was studied.

The respondents were asked what kinds of alcoholic products and how much they had imported. Number of trips abroad or cruises where they had brought alcohol was examined. The respondents were also asked from how many of these trips they had returned by air, by ship (from Estonia or Sweden) or by land (from Russia or Sweden). The number of 24-hour cruises taken by the respondents was also investigated. Finally, the percentage of personally imported beer, wine and spirits out of all consumed alcohol was studied.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, age, basic and vocational education, occupational group, employment status, annual gross income of the household, number of household members, household composition, region and municipality of residence, occupational group of household head, primary and secondary choice of political party if elections were held at the time of the survey, and party choice in the 1995 parliamentary elections.