Australia's love affair with beer waning

Despite stereotypes, Australian tastes are swinging away from beer towards wine, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show. Further busting the myth of Australians as a nation of drinkers are figures showing that alcohol consumption overall is declining.

“Beer is now at its lowest point in 66 years,” said Louise Gates from the ABS. “Even so, that means that there are still 4.1 litres of pure alcohol available from beer for every person in Australia aged 15 years and over.”

While Australians are consuming less beer per person - a downward trend that started in the 1970s - there’s been an increase in wine consumption.

“In terms of pure alcohol available for consumption, beer was down 2.3% in 2011-12 (compared with the previous year), while wine rose 1.9%. Ready-to-drink beverages have also seen a drop and were down by 2.5%, while spirits have seen the largest fall, down by a full 4%.

“But the overall picture is that consumption of alcohol in Australia has fallen for a second year in a row; 2011-12 saw us drink 1.4 million litres less than we did in 2010-11, and 2.7 million litres less than in 2009-10.”

This information is drawn from the report Apparent Consumption of Alcohol, Australia, 2011-12.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.