Most of us were guilty of it last year, helping to soften the blow of lockdowns, but it seems we don’t want to do away with this indulgence.
During Australia’s various lockdowns many of us could be forgiven for reaching for a wine or two.
But it seems we just carried on drinking with new research revealing the proportion of Australians imbibing alcohol has gone up by 3.5 per cent.
The rise has reversed a steady fall in the number of Australians turning to booze.
Wine was the big winner but cider and liqueur drinks continue to suffer, losing ground despite the increase in drinking.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a turnaround in the long-term trend of declining alcohol consumption we have seen consistently over the last 15 years,” said Michele Levine, chief executive officer of research firm Roy Morgan, which published the research.
It interviewed 50,000 Australians about their drinking habits between October 2020 and September 2021. That period mostly came after the long 2021 Victoria lockdown and it included extended spells with only periodic lockdowns. However, it concluded with Victoria, the ACT and New South Wales all in multi-month stay at home restrictions.
The report found 69.6 per cent of adult Australians consumed booze at least once every month – up from 66.4 per cent a year earlier.
There were significant increases in consumption of wine, spirits and ready to drink alcohol while consumption of beer also increased marginally over the past year. The latter a change on the long term decline in beer drinking.
“Wine has been the big driver of the increase as Australians stuck at home, and without the usual options for domestic or international travel over the last 18 months, have turned to local activities for comfort and entertainment,” said Ms Levine.
Over 9.2 million Australians, 46 per cent of the population, drink wine during an average four week period which is up 3.4 per cent.
Over half of women now drink wine as well as 42 per cent of men.
Rise in beer consumption bucks trend
Beer consumption rose from 35.2 per cent of adults to 35.7 per cent, a small but notable increase.
“The decline in beer drinking over the last 15 years has been more sustained than any other type of alcohol so it will be important for the industry to learn the lessons provided by the pandemic to ensure the increase in beer consumption over the last year is sustained and not a ‘blip’ on the long-term downward trend,” said Ms Levine.
Craft beers have been at the forefront of sales rises with multinational firms controversially snapping up independent breweries. Earlier this month, Lion – part of the Japanese Kirin Group – was given regulatory approval to buy the Byron Bay based owners of Stone & Wood beer.
James Boag, Little Creatures, Furphy, Great Northern, Fat Yak and Cascade are all now owned by either of Australia’s two major breweries – Lion and Asahi’s Carlton and United.
Non-alcoholic wines and beer were also enjoying surge in popularity.
The findings are in contrast to another study of Australia’s alcohol habits which found drinking remained relatively stable during the pandemic.
According to an Australian government report on drugs in wastewater between December 2020 and April 2021 alcohol consumption was “relatively steady” with a small increase in capital city consumption but a decrease in drinking in regional Australia.
Ms Levine cautioned booze firms from getting too excited. While alcohol consumption has increased, that could change as the country opened up and people had more things to spend their money on.
“The return of a range of leisure options, including travel, will provide a new challenge for the alcohol market that has enjoyed a wave of growth over the last 18 months.”
Originally published as Alcohol consumption in Australia rises in 2021, reversing long term decline
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