The latest higher-education monitor found no meaningful increase or decrease in its main indicators of risky alcohol use between 2023 and 2025. The study, conducted by RIVM and the Trimbos Institute, surveyed more than 27,000 students at Dutch research universities and universities of applied sciences in spring 2025. These are survey findings from 2025, rather than a measurement of drinking during this autumn’s introduction weeks.

Among participating students, 7% met the definition of excessive weekly drinking, 13% met the definition of heavy drinking, and 30% screened as having an increased risk of an alcohol use disorder. Trimbos reports no change in these indicators compared with 2023. The longer comparison also found no meaningful change in heavy drinking between 2021 and 2025.

Those categories describe different things. Excessive drinking measures weekly consumption; heavy drinking captures repeated days of concentrated consumption. The alcohol-disorder screening also considers consequences, such as difficulty meeting obligations. Its 30% figure is a screening result, not a diagnosis that three in ten students are addicted. The categories overlap and should not be added together.

There is a further limitation: participation was voluntary, and the response rate was almost 6%. The researchers applied weighting and investigated possible selection bias, but caution that the percentages are indications rather than precise estimates for every Dutch student. They also cannot establish a separate trend for Groningen from these national results.

The decline in club attendance is clearer. In its final report on 2025, published in July 2026, the Dutch association of music venues and festivals, VNPF, analysed data from 55 affiliated music venues. Visits to their club nights fell by 14% compared with 2024. Average attendance per club night also dropped, from 455 in 2023 to 406 in 2025, while the proportion of sold-out club nights fell from 28% to 19% over those two years.

Calling this “14% fewer clubbers” would go beyond the evidence. These are visits: someone attending ten nights generates ten visits. A decline could mean fewer people going out, regular visitors attending less often, or both. The figures cover participating music venues, not every commercial nightclub, student bar or association. They therefore do not establish a 14% fall in Groningen’s clubgoing population.

Nor was every venue moving in the same direction. Between 2023 and 2025, 60% of the venues recorded declining club-night visits, while 40% recorded growth. The national total conceals different local experiences.

The two datasets do not explain why attendance fell, or demonstrate that drinking less caused it. Establishing the roles of ticket prices, household budgets, programming, safety or changing social habits would require evidence about visitors’ decisions.

Drinking also extends well beyond the dance floor. Among student respondents who had consumed alcohol in the previous year, 84% reported usually drinking at their own or someone else’s home, and 80% at a nightlife venue. These overlapping answers show why counting club visits cannot capture the whole drinking pattern. They do not, by themselves, prove that students have recently shifted from clubs to house parties.

In Groningen, the University of Groningen’s account of a workshop involving student, study and sports associations, published on 18 March 2026, offers a more concrete picture of the pressures involved. Participants discussed handling guests who arrive already intoxicated, organising sober supervision and making alcohol-free choices more visible. Some students described not drinking as still being treated as unusual within associations, potentially leaving non-drinkers feeling excluded.

The workshop also involved Verslavingszorg Noord Nederland, or VNN, and Stichting Door Het Geluid. Students practised raising concerns with friends without immediately judging them. This was a discussion of experiences and prevention, rather than a survey measuring how much Groningen students drink. Its practical relevance lies in the everyday decisions it highlights: whether declining a drink is accepted, whether someone notices a struggling friend, and whether a social event offers an easy way to participate without alcohol.

For students reviewing their own habits, count the entire evening, including drinks at home before leaving. Keep a simple record of what you drink and spend, and whether the next day’s plans suffer. For a house dinner or association event, make alcohol-free options easy to find and accept a refusal without asking for an explanation.

Anyone concerned about their own drinking or a friend’s can request a free, anonymous advice conversation with VNN. Call 088 234 34 34 on weekdays or use its advice service. You do not need to identify yourself as addicted, and an advice conversation does not commit you to treatment.