Between 19 and 20 December 2024, YouGov asked 2,250 respondents about whether they were planning on abstaining from alcohol during the first month of 2025.
While 10% said they planned to complete Dry January, just over half said they would not be avoiding alcohol to start the year.
Around a third said that the question was not applicable to them as they already do not drink and 5% responded ‘don’t know’.
The results were also broken down into several categories including gender, age and location.
More men (12%) said that they would be partaking in Dry January than women (9%), but far more women (39%) reported to abstaining from alcohol in their daily lives than men (28%).
Elsewhere, the age group most likely to try and avoid alcohol this January was the 18-24 category, with 15% responding with a ‘yes’ answer.
Next up was the 25-49 group where 13% hope to remain abstinent for the month, followed by the 50-64 and 65+ groups at 9% and 6% respectively.
However, 38% of the people in the 65+ said that they currently do not drink, which was level with the 18-24 group.
The country split was fairly even, with 10% in England and Scotland and 12% in Wales planning on taking up the challenge.
England though had the highest proportion of non-drinkers at 34%, with Scotland at 33% and Wales at 30%.
Within England, people in the North were most likely to plan on taking part in Dry January, with 15% providing a ‘yes’ response.
Next was the South (non-London) at 9%, followed by the Midlands and London which were both at 8%.
As for the non-drinkers, 37% of respondents in the Midlands said they abstain already, with 35% in the South, 33% in London and 30% in the North reporting the same.
And just for fun, YouGov found that 11% of Labour and Lib Dem voters from the 2024 General Election planned on completing Dry January, compared with 9% of Conservative and Reform voters.
