81% of women in Nepal never consumed alcohol compared to 43% of men who did, shows a new survey

KATHMANDU, Dec 8: Consumption rate of alcohol and tobacco is higher among men compared to women in Nepal, a recent survey report shows. According to a recent survey by the Central Bureau of Statistics, 81.4 percent of women, aged between 15 and 49 years, never drank compared to 43 percent of the men of the same age group. However,  5.1 percent of the women of the same age group reported taking alcoholic drinks at least once before the age of 15.

The newly released survey finding report of the Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019 by the CBS shows that the use of alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco is prevalent among men compared to women.

Out of 14,805 women respondents included in the survey conducted from May to November last year, 9.1 percent said that they had at least one alcoholic drink at any time during the last one month compared to 40.6 percent out of 5,501 men.

The Nepal MICS 2019 collected information on ever and current use of tobacco and alcohol and intensity of use among women and men.

Similarly, 89.2 percent of women never smoked cigarettes or consumed other tobacco products while 10.6 percent consumed tobacco products. According to the survey findings, 43.9 percent men never smoked cigarettes or used other tobacco products while 12.3 percent men were cigarette smokers or/and tobacco users.

The survey also found that men are happier, compared to women. The CBS survey found that among 15-24 and 15-49 age groups, men are happier than women. In the age group 15-24, 69.6% men are “very happy or somewhat happy”, compared to 68% of women feeling the same. Similarly, in the 15-49 age group, 64.7% of men are “very happy or somewhat happy”, compared to 62.4% of women feeling the same.  

The survey shows that Nepal has made significant progress in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals indicators, including those on child mortality, child nutrition, access to water and sanitation, and birth registration.

The survey shows 8 percent of women, aged between 20 and 24, married before the age of 15, and 33 percent before reaching 18 years old.

The survey also found that the under-five mortality rate, infant mortality rate, and neonatal mortality rate in Nepal have all declined over the past five years. Since the MICS 2014, the under-five mortality rate has declined from 37 to 28 deaths per 1,000 live births, the infant mortality rate dropped from 31 to 25 deaths per 1,000 live births and the neonatal mortality rate declined from 19 to 16 per 1,000 live births, according to the report.

The completion rate of lower basic education is 82 percent, upper basic education is 73 percent, and secondary level education is 27 percent. The completion rate for girls is slightly higher than for boys at all levels.

 
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