Australians embrace the festive spirit(s)

The festive season is a busy time for liquor retailers as consumers stock up on beverages to help them celebrate. But while beer and sparkling wine remain the popular choices, research from Roy Morgan reveals many Australians will celebrate with rum, whisky, bourbon, vodka, gin or tequila, with more than a quarter of Australian adults consuming spirits at least once in an average four weeks.

Australians’ overall alcohol consumption has been relatively stable in the past few years. 69.6% of the adult population consumes alcohol in any given four-week period. Wine remains the most popular beverage, consumed by 44.5% (or almost 8.3 million people) in an average four weeks, followed by beer (38.5% or over 7.1 million). Spirits are the third most popular type of liquor, drunk by 26.2% of the adult population (nearly 5 million people).

Alcohol consumption in Australia

Source: Roy Morgan Liquor Currency Report (Australia), October 2015–September 2016, n=14,489.

While spirits consumption is nowhere near as male-dominated as beer, men (31.6%) are markedly more likely than women (20.9%) to partake in any given four-week period. The male skew is due to the overwhelming popularity of whisky, bourbon/American whiskey and rum among Australian men. Vodka and gin, on the other hand, are consumed by more women than men.

Types of spirits consumed: men vs women

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), October 2015–September 2016, n=14,489.

Spirited attitudes

Age also plays a role, with Roy Morgan’s Liquor Currency Report for September 2016 showing spirits consumption is most widespread among young drinkers aged 18–24 (37% of whom partake in an average four weeks) and 25–34 year-olds (29.4%). After that, consumption falls off, bottoming out at 21.4% among the 50-plus age group, although this varies depending on the spirit.

Certain attitudes are more prevalent among spirits drinkers. Four in every 10 agree with the statement ‘I like my drinks strong’, compared with 22% of Australian drinkers overall. Among bourbon and vodka drinkers, this figure is much higher, at 51.7% and 49.8% respectively.

While nearly a third of all Australian drinkers (31.5%) ‘don’t like drinking in pubs’, only 20% of vodka drinkers, and an even lower proportion of tequila drinkers (17.6%), dislike pubs. Whisky drinkers — more than half of whom are aged 50+ — are the exception to this rule, with almost 35% preferring to avoid pubs.

“Alcohol drinkers are a diverse bunch, with a person’s liquor consumption often linked to their age, gender, socio-economic scale, ethnic background, attitudes and even state of residence. Even within a category, such as spirits, there can be considerable variation,” said Norman Morris, industry communications director, Roy Morgan Research.