Beer is still the world’s most popular social lubricant, but beer consumption overall has been in decline for quite some time. This is something we’ve detailed many times on CBB, and I suppose it has once again been confirmed from the latest results of Gallup’s July 1-12 Consumption Habits survey. The survey is full of great, 30,000-ft-view, hard-to-find-a-use-for alcohol market generalizations — like how lower education and lower-income Americans are the most partial to beer. Ok.
This latest survey shows beer has declined almost 10 percentage points since 1993, which I guess is when Gallup started doing these polls(?). This survey is based on telephone interviews with U.S. national adults that are 18 years old or older. Gallup measures the amount that Americans drink by asking how many drinks that person had in the past seven days. Who would ever lie about that? To even their doctors or family? Certainly not me.
I say double all these facts.
Here are some of these nuggets of surveyism that you can probably forget soon after reading. From this Gallup article:
- While beer is not as dominant as it was a quarter-century ago, it remains the most popular of the three types of alcohol, with men primarily responsible for keeping it in the top spot.
- Young adults have grown less partial to wine while middle-aged adults are less likely to say they prefer beer.
- The majority of men who drink (55%) say they most often drink beer, while women are more oriented toward wine (45%).
- Adults under 55 are the age groups most likely to prefer beer as well as liquor, while adults over 55 are the most likely to prefer wine.
- Residents of the East and Midwest are most partial to beer.
- Maybe the most interesting factoid: Sixty-five percent of all U.S. adults, aged 18 and older, currently say they “have occasion to use alcoholic beverages such as liquor, wine or beer” while 34% describe themselves as a “total abstainer.”
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