Increase in water consumption belies drinking habits, research says

Water is the only drink that UK consumers are drinking more of, according to new research to be revealed today at a conference on healthy hydration.

The figures, produced by Kantar Worldpanel, show tap water has seen a 17% increase in consumption in the last year, from 6bn to 7.1bn servings of tap water being consumed in 2015. Consumption of bottled water has increased by 9% from 2.7bn to 2.9bn servings of bottled water consumed.

Tea and coffee remain the UK’s most popular drinks, with 20bn servings of tea drunk in the last year, an equivalent of 312 servings for every person in the UK, and 12.5bn coffees consumed.

The statistics also reveal that consumers’ interest in health has soared over the last 20 years. The consumption decisions of more than one in five are now motivated by health, compared to 11% in 1995. When choosing drinks for health reasons, dairy drinks, fruit juices, tap water and bottled water are the top four choices.

Despite the increase in water consumption, the majority of people in the UK – nearly 60% – still only drink just one serving of water or less a day and more than 80% drink no more than two servings of water. Brits fall well behind other European countries in terms of water consumption, with the EU average being three times more than that of the UK, according to recent data from Canadean.

The independent findings will be presented today at a conference organised by the Natural Hydration Council.

Kinvara Carey, general manager of the Natural Hydration Council, said: “Whilst it is good to see that water consumption is on the increase, clearly more needs to be done to encourage healthy drinking as much as healthy eating. There are still more than 30m people who do not drink water at home in a typical week; that’s half the UK population.”