This is because in the UK, just as alcohol plays an important role in the social life of adults, it also plays a similar role in the social development of adolescents. Although the proportion of pupils in this age group who had never drunk alcohol has risen in recent years, from 39% in 2003 to 55% in 2011, abstaining is still considered among young people to be abnormal, marking groups of teenagers to be excluded from the mainstream youth culture.[28]