Men and women aged between 45 and 64 were more likely to consume excessive amounts of alcohol, according to a new study.
And people aged 55 to 64 were particularly likely to be drinking “at higher or increasing risk levels”, the Office for National Statistics said.
A quarter of men aged 65 and over and 13 per cent of women drank five days a week in 2016, the ONS survey showed.
The data shows that, in 2016, 60 per cent of women and 69 per cent of men aged 45 to 64 had drunk alcohol in the week before they took the survey – both the highest of any age group.
Campaigners seized on the figures to issue health warnings.
Susannah Brown, from the World Cancer Research Fund, said: “It is worrying that so many baby boomers are drinking too much as this significantly increases their risk of several common cancers, including bowel and breast.
“If nobody drank alcohol in the UK, 21,000 cases of cancer could be prevented each year, including nearly 12,000 cases of breast cancer.”
Dr John Larsen of Drinkaware said: “Whilst it is encouraging to see that young people aged between 16 and 24 years old are increasingly tending to drink less often or are becoming teetotal, there are some worrying figures in the survey.
“The Office for National Statistics data shows that 45 to 64 year olds are as likely to binge drink as those between the ages of 16 to 24.
“Most people wouldn’t think that sitting at home and having more than three pints or drinking most of a bottle of wine in front of the television is binging, but the units add up.
“There are short and long term health risks associated with drinking at risky levels from interrupted sleep and weight gain to cancer, liver and heart disease.”
The ONS data, published yesterday, showed married and cohabiting couples are also more likely to knock back alcohol on five or more days a week than single people, though they are slightly less likely to binge drink.
And the study found that those in managerial or professional jobs are more likely to drink five days a week or more and drink more heavily in a single session than those in intermediate or manual jobs.
Shocking figures released yesterday also showed that hospital admissions where alcohol was the main factor are at a record high.
There were 339,000 estimated admissions related to alcohol consumption in 2015/16 – 3 per cent higher than 2014/15 and 22 per cent higher than 2005/6.
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chairman of Alcohol Health Alliance, said: “These figures show that the UK continues to have a dysfunctional relationship with alcohol.
“We know that over the long term, rates of binge drinking are falling, and more people are choosing to abstain from alcohol.
“Worryingly, however, these trends do not appear big enough to stop alcohol harm from continuing to rise, and the sharp increase in alcohol-related hospital admissions over the last few years means hundreds of thousands more people each year are experiencing the misery associated with harmful alcohol consumption.
“The data released today should be sobering reading for whoever wins the upcoming General Election, and we would urge the next government to make tackling alcohol harm an immediate priority to save lives, reduce harm, and reduce the pressure on the NHS.”
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