drinking wine

New data shows fewer Aussies are drinking wine

August 12, 2019
By Alana House

New research from Roy Morgan shows that drinking wine continues to be the most popular alcohol choice with Australians, but numbers are declining.

Roy Morgan’s ‘Alcohol Consumption Currency Report June 2019’ found 41.3% of Australians who drink alcohol consume wine in an average four weeks, compared to 37.6% that drink beer.

Michele Levine, Chief Executive Officer, Roy Morgan said: “Wine is again the most widely drunk alcoholic beverage with 41.3% of Australians drinking a glass of their favourite drop in an average four weeks compared to 37.6% that drink beer and just over a quarter (26.3%) that drink spirits. “

This is down from 42.8% of wine drinkers and 38.2% of beer drinkers in May, while spirit drinkers remained stable.

Alcohol share of volume consumed in Australia; fewer Australians drinking wine
Alcohol share of volume consumed in Australia July 2018-June 2019

The latest findings are derived from the Roy Morgan’s ‘Alcohol Consumption Currency Report June 2019’ which is based on in-depth interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 consumers per annum in their homes, including detailed questioning of over 15,000 regarding their alcoholic drinking habits.

The data shows two-thirds of Australians aged 18+ (66.3%) consume alcohol in an average four weeks and over 1-in-8 Australians (12.8%) consume not only beer and wine, but also at least one of spirits, RTDs, liqueurs or cider in an average four weeks.

“The growth of cider as a newly popular drink of choice has plateaued in recent years with just over 1-in-10 Australians now drinking cider,” Levine added.

Roy Morgan found that 37.6% of consumers drink another type of alcohol including at least one of spirits, cider, RTDs or liqueurs.

The most popular combination of two alcoholic beverages between these three categories of alcoholic drinks is for the 9.6% who are drinking wine and another type of alcohol (not including beer) in an average four weeks.

Beer is still the ‘Volume King’ for Australians

Although wine is the most popular alcoholic drink in terms of the number of drinkers, beer is clearly the top in terms of volume (based on glasses).

The following chart shows that beer accounts for 45.3% of the volume of alcoholic drinks consumed more than wine (29.2%) and spirits (13.2%) combined.

Other forms of alcohol comprise the remaining 12.5% of alcohol consumption volume including RTD (5.8%), cider (3.5%), liqueurs (1.2%), fortified wine (0.9%) and other alcohol (1%).

However, despite the 1-in-8 Australians that are drinking wine, beer and something else, overall incidence of alcohol consumption has continued to decline gently over the last five years from 69.8% in mid-2014.

Levine said: “Although the incidence of alcohol consumption among Australians has fallen there are a significant 12.8% of Australians who like to drink several different types of alcohol including beer, wine and at least one (or more) of spirits, RTDs, liqueurs or cider in an average four weeks.”

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