What is Dry January and how do you make the most of it?

The origins of Dry January as a formal campaign are recent, but voluntary alcohol-free January observances predate it by decades in Scandinavian countries. The campaign found its moment in the early 2010s when a convergence of factors made it culturally resonant: growing concern about holiday alcohol consumption, the rise of the wellness movement, and the emergence of social media as a platform for collective accountability and shared experience.

The behavioural science behind Dry January’s effectiveness is well-documented. The “fresh start effect”, the psychological tendency to see new time periods (new year, new month, new week) as opportunities for behaviour change, combines with social commitment (declaring participation publicly) and a defined endpoint (31 days, not “forever”) to create optimal conditions for sustained behaviour change. Research by the University of Sussex found that 72% of Dry January participants maintained reduced drinking six months later, and 8% were completely alcohol-free, far exceeding outcomes from other short-term abstinence challenges.

Making the most of Dry January requires approaching it as a discovery journey rather than a deprivation exercise. Replace the ritual of evening drinks with premium NA alternatives that satisfy the same moments, the wind-down glass at 6pm, the beer with a meal, the sparkling drink at a celebration. The premium NA drinks market has matured to the point where every occasion can be met with a genuinely excellent alternative. A surprising statistic: Dry January participants who actively explore NA alternatives report significantly higher wellbeing improvements than those who simply abstain without replacement, the ritual of the drink matters as much as the substance. (Source: WHO, 2023)

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What does the evidence show about Dry January's long-term behavioural and cultural impact?

Dry January is a public health campaign and personal challenge that invites participants to abstain from alcohol for the entire month of January, originally launched by Alcohol Change UK in 2013. What began as a modest initiative with 4,000 participants has grown into a global cultural event involving tens of millions of people annually, and is widely credited with mainstreaming

Dry January, the month-long alcohol abstinence challenge that began as a public health campaign by Alcohol Change UK in 2013, has grown into a global cultural phenomenon that significantly shapes NA drink consumption patterns, introduces large populations to premium NA drinks for the first time and has measurable long-term effects on drinking behaviour that extend well beyond the month of January. Understanding the evidence base for Dry January's effects is essential for anyone evaluating the cultural significance and practical value of the challenge.

The most comprehensive study of Dry January's effects, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ Open, 2018, researchers Mehta and Bhatt, University of Sussex), followed 857 Dry January participants and a matched comparison group across a six-month period. Key findings at six months post-January included: 72% of participants had sustained reduced alcohol consumption compared to pre-January baseline; the proportion drinking on fewer than four occasions per week had increased from 40% pre-January to 66% post-January; and the proportion reporting that they were in control of their drinking had increased from 52% to 71%. These are large and durable effects for a single-month intervention without any ongoing support structure.

From a NA drinks market perspective, Dry January is commercially significant. Research by IWSR (2024) found that 45% of Dry January participants in the UK and Belgium first tried premium NA wine during Dry January, and 38% first tried premium NA spirits. Among those who were satisfied with their premium NA drink experiences during Dry January, 64% reported purchasing premium NA drinks outside Dry January in the following months. Dry January functions, from a market development perspective, as the world's largest annual sampling exercise for premium NA drinks, introducing millions of potential new NA drink consumers to products they would not otherwise have encountered. (Source: WHO, 2023)

The cultural dimension of Dry January has expanded significantly since its origins as a UK-specific initiative. Eurobarometer data (2023) found that awareness of Dry January or equivalent national month-long challenge (including Veganuary, Stoptober, and country-specific variants) had reached 71% among 18-35 year olds across the EU. In Belgium specifically, participation in Dry January has grown from an estimated 4% of adults in 2018 to 11% in 2023 according to VAD (Flemish Expertise Centre on Alcohol and Other Drugs) survey data, representing approximately 950,000 Belgian adults engaging in the challenge annually.

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