What is a unit of alcohol?
One unit = 10ml (millilitres) or 8g (grams) of pure alcohol.
Because alcoholic drinks come in different strengths and sizes, units are a way to tell how strong your drink is – which can also help you to make comparisons.
Alcohol units are a simple way of understanding the quantity of pure alcohol in a drink.
As an example, a pint of average strength beer (4% ‘alcohol by volume’, or ABV – see below for explanation) has over two units in it, while a single measure (25ml) of typical spirits is one unit.
The UK’s Chief Medical Officers advise that, if you choose to drink, it’s safest to drink no more than 14 units a week (for both men and women). It’s also important to spread any drinking over three or more days, with several drink-free days and no bingeing.
It takes an average adult around an hour to process one unit of alcohol so that there’s none left in their bloodstream, although this varies from person to person. And the more you drink, the longer it takes – so, six units of alcohol would take the average person six hours to process.
Summary
We have described what is a unit of alcohol. We hope it has been helpful.
