According to new research from Roy Morgan, the most popular alcoholic beverage in Australia is wine, a trend that is largely driven by female drinkers.
The research found that 45.1 percent of Australian adults drink wine in any given four week period, while 37.6 percent say they drink beer – a trend which Roy Morgan says is being led by the popularity of wine amongst the female population.
During 2015, 4.6 million of Australian women 18+ (or 49.0 percent of the adult female population) drank some kind of wine in an average four weeks, compared to 3.7 million of men (41.2 percent). Of the wine consumed, white wine proved to be the most popular drop amongst female drinkers coming in at 69.3 percent. This is followed by red wine (56.3 percent), sparkling (42.3 percent) and fortified (9.3 percent). In addition to this, 18.4 percent of female wine drinkers say that they drink red, white and sparkling wine in any given four-week period.
In terms of male wine drinkers, red wine wins out in popularity with 78.1 percent stating that they are more likely to consume red than white (58.4 percent). Men are also dramatically less likely than women to drink sparkling wine (24.6 percent), and much more likely to drink fortified wine (15.4 percent).
Although women outnumber men when it comes to wine-drinking incidence, the volume each gender consumes is fairly similar. Two-thirds of female wine drinkers and nearly 63 percent of their male counterparts report consuming less than 15 glasses of wine per four weeks.
Even among heavier drinkers – those consuming more than 43 glasses of wine per four-week period – the difference between men (10.6 percent) and women (7.5 percent) is not that dissimilar.
“While the proportion of women who drink wine has fallen slightly over the last decade (from 51.8 percent to 49 percent), the decrease in male wine drinkers has been much more marked (from 48.1 percent to 41.2 percent). Beer remains the clear favourite among Aussie men, consumed by 58.1 percent of them in any given four weeks," says Andrew Price, general manager – consumer products, Roy Morgan Research.
“There is frequently a social dimension to Aussie women’s wine-drinking: over 45 percent consume it in a licensed venue (for example a bar, pub, restaurant or festival) and nearly 41 percent drink it at friends’/relatives’ homes. In contrast, 34.6 percent of male wine-drinkers consume it on premises, and 32.5 percent do so at friends’/relatives’ homes. Not surprisingly, however, the comfort of home is the most popular place to enjoy a vino, for male and female drinkers alike (85.5 percent and 80.3 percent respectively).
“Less expected, perhaps, is the relatively similar volumes of wine consumed by both genders in an average four weeks, even at the high end of the range (43+ glasses)."
Type of wine consumed: male vs female wine drinkers. Credit Roy Morgan
No of wine glasses consumed per average 4 weeks: women vs men. Credit Roy Morgan
