What Is Driving Nanaimo’s Higher Alcohol Use?

 

Nanaimo’s Hidden Substance Problem — Part Two

Why Does Greater Nanaimo Drink More Than B.C.?

The sales figures reveal a substantial gap. They do not tell us whether it is driven by stress, culture, isolation, economic pressure—or a complicated mixture of them all.

Greater Nanaimo’s alcohol numbers raise an obvious question.

Why are recorded alcohol sales per person so much higher than the provincial level?

In 2022, alcohol sold in the Greater Nanaimo health area was equivalent to 10.9 litres of pure alcohol for every resident aged 15 and older, compared with 8.9 litres across British Columbia.

That placed Greater Nanaimo approximately 22 per cent above the provincial figure—the equivalent of about 639 standard drinks, or roughly 27 cases of 24 regular-strength beer, per person over the course of the year.

The number includes people who do not drink, as well as residents aged 15 to 18. It is not an estimate of what the average legal-age drinker personally consumed.

The number tells us how much alcohol entered the local market. It does not tell us why Greater Nanaimo remains so far above the B.C. level.

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The figure is based on alcohol sold in the area, not a survey asking Nanaimo residents how much they personally drank.

Nevertheless, the same basic method is applied across B.C., making the comparison difficult to ignore.

What the number does not tell us is why the difference exists.

Not Necessarily an Increasing Problem

The first caution is important: Greater Nanaimo’s alcohol consumption was not rising steadily.

Sales increased during the pandemic, reaching approximately 11.6 litres per person in 2020 and 2021, before falling to 10.9 litres in 2022.

Greater Nanaimo remained well above the B.C. level, but it was slightly below the Island Health average.

That suggests pandemic conditions may have intensified existing drinking habits. It also suggests Nanaimo may be part of a broader Vancouver Island pattern rather than a complete provincial outlier.

The question is not why Nanaimo is drinking more and more. It is why Greater Nanaimo continues to record substantially higher alcohol sales than B.C. overall.

Stress, Boredom and Isolation

During the pandemic, Canadians who increased their alcohol or cannabis use frequently cited stress, boredom and loneliness.

Spending more time at home and losing normal routines also made private consumption easier to conceal and normalize.

Greater Nanaimo’s health profile provides another piece of context. In 2022–23, mood and anxiety disorders affected an estimated 367.5 people per 1,000 in Greater Nanaimo.

That was below the Island Health rate but above the B.C. rate of 322.6 per 1,000.

This does not prove anxiety caused Nanaimo’s alcohol sales. The relationship can run in both directions.

People may use alcohol or cannabis to cope with stress, sleeplessness, loneliness or depression. Sustained heavy use can then worsen mental health, finances, relationships and physical health.

What begins as relief can become another source of pressure.

Cost of Living and Insecure Employment

Housing costs, food prices and employment uncertainty are also reasonable suspects—but the timing matters.

Nanaimo’s 2025 unemployment rate was reported at 7.3 per cent. Average monthly apartment rent reached approximately $1,685, while the rental vacancy rate stood at 2.2 per cent.

Those current pressures cannot be blamed for alcohol sales recorded in 2022.

They can, however, create conditions in which harmful substance use grows privately before it appears in future health, housing or emergency statistics.

Financial stress does not affect everyone in the same way. Some people buy less alcohol because money is tight. Indeed, B.C. alcohol sales have recently declined, with researchers identifying inflation and cost pressures as possible contributing factors.

For others, unemployment or financial insecurity can bring a loss of routine, purpose and hope. Alcohol or cannabis may become a comparatively accessible escape, even as the money spent makes the financial problem worse.

Economic pressure may reduce overall alcohol sales while increasing dangerous use among some of the people least able to afford the consequences.

Culture and Convenience

Nanaimo has long had a reputation for pubs and drinking establishments. Whether that reputation is fully deserved is another question, but alcohol has been woven into social life for generations.

A large number of liquor outlets and licensed establishments makes alcohol convenient. Legal cannabis stores now make cannabis similarly accessible.

Convenience may influence where and how often people buy. It does not necessarily increase the total amount consumed.

A new liquor store may simply divide an existing market among more retailers. Someone who wants alcohol may drive across town if the nearest store closes.

That is why sales and health outcomes matter more than counting storefronts.

The regional figures raise several questions the available data cannot answer:

• Does Vancouver Island have a more permissive drinking culture?
• Does Nanaimo’s role as a regional shopping centre increase recorded sales?
• How much is purchased by tourists or residents of surrounding communities?
• Did pandemic-era drinking at home become a permanent habit for some people?
• Are loneliness, mental-health pressures and financial insecurity contributing to harmful use among particular groups?

Each explanation is plausible. None has been proven to be the single cause.

Government Knows What Is Sold—Not Who Drinks It

Almost all legal commercial alcohol sold through B.C. liquor stores, restaurants, pubs, breweries, wineries and brewpubs is captured through the province’s wholesale or sales-reporting system.

That makes the recorded sales volume reasonably strong.

What it cannot show is who purchased the alcohol, where it was ultimately consumed or how evenly consumption was distributed.

A visitor may buy alcohol in Nanaimo and drink it elsewhere. A Nanaimo resident may purchase alcohol in another community. Homemade alcohol and personal imports may escape the local count.

Those limitations add some haze around the edges. They do not erase a persistent gap between Greater Nanaimo and B.C.

No Single, Comfortable Explanation

It would be convenient to blame Nanaimo’s numbers on one cause: unemployment, high rent, too many liquor stores, the pandemic or an Island drinking culture.

The evidence does not allow that.

The most likely explanation is a mixture of habit, social acceptance, convenience, stress, isolation, mental health, regional shopping and personal circumstances.

The sales figure tells us how much alcohol entered the local market.

It does not tell us why one person has a glass of wine with dinner while another drinks until the rent, the job or the family begins to disappear.

A private substance problem can remain invisible for years. It becomes a public statistic only when something finally breaks.

This is Part Two of Nanaimo’s Hidden Substance Problem. Part Three will examine what may happen behind closed doors before substance use becomes an ambulance call, housing crisis or visible street-level emergency.

Sources

Island Health: Greater Nanaimo Local Health Area Profile .

Statistics Canada: Alcohol and cannabis use during the COVID-19 pandemic .

City of Nanaimo: 2026 State of the Nanaimo Economy .

University of Victoria: Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research .