SBS Italian news, with a slower pace. This is Slow Italian, Fast Learning, the very best of the week’s news, read at a slower pace, with Italian and English text available.
Italian
Meno di dieci anni fa l'Australia era in preda ad una cultura del bere che danneggiava il benessere fisico e mentale delle persone.
Nuovi dati mostrano però come ciò potrebbe diventare un ricordo del passato: i livelli di consumo di alcol sono infatti al livello più basso dal 1961.
Louise Gates, del dipartimento di statistica, ha dichiarato che l'immigrazione potrebbe essere uno dei fattori dietro al calo.
"So it's definitely been heading in that direction and I guess we get some indications from our other surveys which show the proportion of people who don't drink or rarely drink has been increasing over that time as well, and that's partly due to increased (numbers of) residents from overseas."
Il dipartimento di statistica ha rivelato che dal 2016 al 2017 sono stati consumati quasi 186 milioni di litri di alcol puro, 2,4 milioni di litri in meno rispetto all'anno precedente.
Ciò significa che ogni anno vengono consumati 9,4 litri di alcol puro per ogni persona dai 15 anni in su, l'equivalente di 2,6 drink standard a persona per giorno.
Julie Robert, della University of Technology di Sydney, studia l'impatto delle campagne contro l'alcol nelle diverse culture.
"It's not surprising that 2008 was when we started to see the turning point and that the levels have just been dropping ever since. 2008 is when we saw the fever pitch around binge-drinking, we saw the tax on Alcopops go on at that time, it's also the time Australia started Dry July, Feb Fast and Oct-sober (campaigns)."
Nonostante la birra sia la principale fonte di alcol, dal 2011 il suo consumo è in lento calo, mentre vino e sidro sono in salita.
Il presidente di ReachOut Australia, Jono Nicolas, ha dichiarato che la ragione si trova nel fatto che la generazione dei forti bevitori è cambiata.
"We've seen from a whole range of statistics this generation of young people in particular are drinking less, smoking less, are probably one of the safest generations of young people in history."
Nicolas ha aggiunto che, mentre sempre più giovani adulti scelgono attivamente di non bere, l'Australia si trova ancora ad affrontare un enorme problema.
"One area of concern though is that when young people do drink, they tend to drink large amounts in one sitting - so we still have a really big challenge communicating to people on binge drinking and how unsafe that can be for them."
English
Less than a decade ago, Australia was gripped by a drinking culture that hurt people's physical and mental wellbeing.
But new data shows that could soon all be a thing of the past with alcohol consumption falling to its lowest level since 1961.
Louise Gates, from the Bureau of Statistics, says immigration could be one of the factors behind the fall.
"So it's definitely been heading in that direction and I guess we get some indications from our other surveys which show the proportion of people who don't drink or rarely drink has been increasing over that time as well, and that's partly due to increased (numbers of) residents from overseas."
The Bureau of Statistics says almost 186 million litres of pure alcohol was consumed from 2016 to 2017 - that's 2.4 million litres less than the previous year.
That means 9.4 litres of pure alcohol each year is consumed for every person aged 15 years or over - the equivalent of 2.6 standard drinks per person per day.
Academic Julie Robert, from the University of Technology Sydney, studies the cross-cultural impacts of alcohol abstinence campaigns.
"It's not surprising that 2008 was when we started to see the turning point and that the levels have just been dropping ever since. 2008 is when we saw the fever pitch around binge-drinking, we saw the tax on Alcopops go on at that time, it's also the time Australia started Dry July, Feb Fast and Oct-sober (campaigns)."
Although beer is the leading source of alcohol, it's been slowly declining since 2011 and wine and cider consumption is on the rise.
ReachOut Australia C-E-O Jono Nicolas says this is because the generation of excessive drinkers has changed.
"We've seen from a whole range of statistics this generation of young people in particular are drinking less, smoking less, are probably one of the safest generations of young people in history."
He says while more and more young adults are actively choosing not to drink, Australia still faces a major problem.
"One area of concern though is that when young people do drink, they tend to drink large amounts in one sitting - so we still have a really big challenge communicating to people on binge drinking and how unsafe that can be for them."
Report by Charlotte Lam.
