To appreciate the intricacies and complexities of social (and external) cost studies,
it seems useful to look more closely at a sophisticated recent UK COI study (UK
Cabinet Office 2003), which provides estimates of prevalence-based alcohol misuse
in England and Wales in 2001 over a range of alcohol-dependent drinkers (7.9% of
the English population aged 16 and over) and heavy drinkers (5.4% of the population).