Roy Morgan has published its Alcohol Currency Report, which has revealed that while more Australians are choosing to consume wine, beer is the biggest category being consumed, by volume.
The report showed that 69.3 per cent of Australians 18+ drink alcohol in an average four-week period. Of all Australians 18+ years old, 44.5 per cent consume wine, 39.1 per cent consume beer, 27.5 per cent consume spirits, and 13.6 per cent consume cider.
Further, the report revealed that in Australia, 128.8 million glasses of alcohol were consumed by 11.6 million drinkers in an average seven-day period in 2017.
Beer has the highest “Share of Throat” across Australia, accounting for 44 per cent of all alcohol volume consumed by drinkers, compared to wine at 32 per cent. The report also said that while cider has experienced an increase in popularity over the last decade, it still represents only 3.3 per cent of all alcoholic volume.
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, said: “While wine is the most popular choice of alcoholic drink among Australians, it’s interesting to note the largest volume of alcohol is beer, representing 44% of all alcohol in a 12 month period.”
In revealing some of the other trends detailed in the report, Levine added: “There has been a decline in alcohol consumption among men, who in the last five years have gone from 76.5 per cent consuming alcohol to 73.9 per cent in an average four-week period. This is contrasted by the rise of women consuming alcohol, which has increased from 64.1 per cent to 64.8 per cent.
“Young people have also declined in alcohol consumption, with 18-24 year olds decreasing from 71.8 per cent alcohol consumption to 68.1 per cent in an average four-weeks. This is compared to 50+, who have increased from 69.4 per cent to 70.2 per cent.”
The Roy Morgan research also found that women are the biggest consumers of wine, with nearly 50 per cent of all women drinking wine in an average four-weeks compared to 39 per cent of men. Wine skews to older drinkers, with the highest incidence among 50+ and 35-49 year olds. In contrast, beer is consumed by 59 per cent of men in an average four weeks, compared to only 20 per cent of women. Beer is fairly constant across age, increasing slightly from 18-49, but declines for the 50+ age group.
Cider is fairly evenly split between the genders with a slight skew towards women, but it is heavily skewed to younger Australians compared to old, with 27 per cent of 18-24 year olds consuming cider in an average 4 weeks compared to 7.8 per cent of 50+.
Levine added: “The Alcohol Retail Currency Report contains a detailed overview of alcohol consumption in Australia today together with five-year comparative data. The report covers wine, beer, spirits, Ready to Drink, liqueurs, fortified wine and cider, and provides incidence figures for each alcohol type, together with consumption trends for the total alcohol category plus each alcohol type, by age and gender.
“It also looks at the ‘share of throat’ for each type of alcohol by age, gender, and types of alcohol consumed for the last 12 months. The data also divides the total alcohol drinker market into low, medium and heavy alcohol drinkers and looks at these segments by age, gender, type of alcohol consumed, and volume share for the last 12 months.”