More people in the Netherlands are having no more than one alcoholic drink a day or are quitting alcohol altogether, new figures from the national statistics agency CBS show.

The Leefstijlmonitor, a two-yearly survey chronicling the nation’s bad habits, revealed that 41% of adults now drink not at all or very little, up 4% compared to five years ago. Women and the elderly, in particular, are most often abstemious.

Official government advice is to drink no more than one alcoholic drink per day. More, health experts say, will increase the chances of serious illnesses, such as cancer and strokes.

‘Every alcoholic drink does damage to the body,’ spokeswoman for the Trimbos addiction and mental health institute Karin Monshouwer told broadcaster Nos. ‘It’s important people are made aware of this so they can make their own risk assessment.’

The number of heavy drinkers is slowly falling as well, the figures show. Nevertheless,   there is still much work to do, for instance by limiting the amount of advertising for alcoholic drinks, a measure proposed in the 2018 government health agreement, Monshouwer said.

The survey also showed that people on low incomes are most likely to keep to the recommended amount of alcohol per day while people on high incomes are least likely to moderate alcohol use. Moderate drinkers also tend to smoke less and take fewer drugs.