PRINCETON, N.J. -- Beer has regained a comfortable margin over wine when U.S. drinkers are asked to name which alcoholic beverage they most often drink, according to Gallup's annual Consumption Habits poll. In recent years, wine had narrowed the gap, including pulling slightly ahead in 2005 (though not by a significant margin), but for the first time since 2002, beer enjoys a better-than-double-digit advantage over wine.
Beer, at 42%, still is not as widely preferred today as it was in the early 1990s, when close to half of Americans said it was their alcoholic drink of choice. Preferences [image-nocss] for wine have fallen back from their 2005 high (39%) to 31%.
The shift back to beer from wine in recent years has occurred mostly among Americans between the ages of 30 and 49. In combined data from the 2004 and 2005 consumption surveys, drinkers between 30 and 49 were about as likely to prefer wine as beer. Now, drinkers in this age bracket have shifted back to beer, with an average of 47% in the combined 2007-2008 data saying they most often drink beer.
Drinking preferences of younger adults have remained stable in recent years, with 18- to 29-year-olds still showing a wide preference for beer, though nowhere near as large as it was in the 1992-1994 data. Younger adults are more likely to say they drink liquor most often than to say they drink wine. In contrast, wine is the preferred beverage of older drinkers, and has been since the early 1990s. Drinkers aged 50 and older have also had stable preferences in recent years.
This year's consumption poll also finds:
62% of Americans say they drink alcohol, a percentage that has varied little in the last 10 years. The average drinker reports having consumed 3.8 alcoholic drinks in the past week. This is the first time the average has dropped below 4 drinks since 2001. It had been as high as 5.1 in 2003. Continuing a recent trend, Gallup finds a higher proportion of drinkers claiming to have had an alcoholic beverage in the last 24 hours; 36% of Americans have reported drinking alcohol in the last 24 hours in each of the last four Gallup consumption polls. This compares to an average of 30% from 2000-2004. "Daily drinking" is more common among Americans of higher socioeconomic status. Over the past four years, an average of 42% of college graduates report having had a drink in the last 24 hours, compared with 32% of those who have not graduated from college. Similarly, 41% of drinkers with incomes of $75,000 or greater say they have had a drink in the past 24 hours, compared with 36% of middle-income respondents (those with household incomes between $30,000 and $74,999) and just 23% of those residing in lower-income households (with incomes of less than $30,000). Men are more likely than women to have had a drink during the previous day, 43% to 28%. Older drinkers are more likely than younger drinkers to have consumed alcohol in the previous 24 hours—39% of those aged 50 and older say they drank in the last 24 hours, compared with 35% of those aged 30 to 49 and just 28% of those below 30."This poll shows what we've always known—that trends will come and go, but beer is here to stay," Bob Lachky, executive vice president of global industry and creative development for St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Inc. and leader the "Here's To Beer" campaign, said in a seprate statement. "More Americans are learning—or re-learning—how to appreciate the wide variety of beer styles available and how easy it is to pair beer with all types of food, which is also attracting new adult consumers to the beer category."
Beer continues to represent the largest segment in the alcohol beverage category in volume and dollar sales, accounting for 56% of all alcohol beverage servings, he said. The A-B-led "Here's To Beer" campaign was launched to help consumers develop a deeper appreciation for beer while providing tools for retailers and distributors to grow their beer business.
The campaign re-launched its website, www.herestobeer.com, in April 2008 with enhanced interactive tools to help consumers learn about beer's ingredients, styles, the brewing process, the importance of proper pouring and glassware, and how to pair beer with food. The site also offers expert tips for food-pairing with videos featuring Food Network personality and cookbook author Dave Lieberman.
Also, www.HTBMarketing.com, the "members-only" site for beer wholesalers, provides downloadable sign making and point-of-sale (POS) templates to create in-store materials to elevate and enhance the beer aisle. Beyond the more than 600 wholesalers in the A-B network, an additional 350 members from the ranks of competitive brewers and non A-B wholesalers are also registered members, the company said.
Click hereto view Gallup charts.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.