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, smuggled or privately imported alcohol out of all consumed alcohol was studied.

The respondents were asked whether they knew somebody who had smuggled, sold or produced spirits, pure alcohol or moonshine in the previous 12 months, whether someone had offered to sell them and how many litres they had bought in the previous 12 months. The number of trips or cruises abroad was examined. The respondents were asked from how many of these trips they had personally imported alcohol, what kinds of alcoholic products they had brought and how many litres. Finally, the percentage of alcohol originally produced in Finland out of all personally imported 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 parliamentary elections had been held at the time of the survey, and party choice in the 1996 municipal elections.