Australians are moving further away from peak booze consumption every year, according to a new study conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Recent figures released by the ABS reveal that Australians are drinking less alcohol than ever before (well, at least since the early ’60s).
A new study by the ABS has revealed that Aussies are failing to live up to their boozehound reputation, with national alcohol consumption the lowest its been since the ’60s.
According to the ABS, Australian’s hit “peak beer” in 1974 and 1975, when the average annual consumption was equivalent to a massive 500 stubbies per person. In 2018, it is closer to 224 stubbies, or 38 bottles of wine.
In 2017, the average Australian drank 9.39 litres of pure alcohol, down from 9.66 litres in 2016 and a massive 10.76 litres a decade ago. Per capita, alcohol consumption fell in every major category, including wine, beer, spirits, cider and pre-mixers. These figures measure the apparent consumption of alcohol but do not account for factors such as cooking, wastage or storage. It also does not include the prevalence of non-drinkers.
“If you keep in mind that around one in five Australians drinks very rarely or not at all, that’s quite a lot for the rest of us,” Australian Bureau of Statistics’ director of health statistics Louse Gates said.
Beer trumps wine as the nation’s preferred drink, but only slightly. Beer’s lead continues to narrow; it accounts for 39.2% of all alcohol available for consumption, closely followed by wine on 38.3%
Alas, not all news is good news. University of Newcastle’s School of Medicine and Public Health’s Professor Kypros Kypri said that figures collected by the ABS were “no longer that useful” as they made assumptions about alcohol content in drinks that were not necessarily all that accurate. For example, the ABS found that the average alcohol content in full-strength domestically-brewed beer increased from 4.64 per cent to 4.92 per cent last year.
Surveys showed that while fewer teenagers were engaging in binge drinking, one in five Australians is still considered a hazardous drinker, a harmful drinker or alcohol dependent.
There doesn’t seem to be any solid reason as to why we’re not drinking as much. Maybe it’s because our rent is going up but our wages aren’t? Maybe it’s because Instagram influencers are making us feel bad about drinking beer while they’re on the smoothies? Or maybe we’re realising that yeah, alcohol doesn’t make you feel all that great.
