Wine turns out to be the most popular alcoholic beverage in Australia in 2015 – thanks to the number of Aussie women who drink it, says new data.
While 37.6 per cent of Australian adults drank beer in any given four-week period last year, 45.1 per cent drank wine, according to Roy Morgan Research.
In 2015, 4.6 million Australian women aged 18 and above (almost half of the adult female population) drank some kind of wine – white, red, sparkling and/or fortified – in an average four weeks, compared to 3.7 million of men (41.2 per cent ).
“Australian women love their wine and, while especially fond of the white and sparkling varieties, do partake in red and, to a lesser extent, fortified wine as well,” said Andrew Price, general manager – consumer products, Roy Morgan Research.
White wine, consumed by 69.3 per cent of female wine drinkers over this time period, wins out over red wine (56.3 per cent ), sparkling (42.3 per cent ) and fortified (9.3 per cent ), according to the research.
“There is frequently a social dimension to Aussie women’s wine-drinking,” said Price. “Over 45 per cent consume it in a licensed venue (for example a bar, pub, restaurant or festival) and nearly 41 per cent drink it at friends’ or relatives’ homes. In contrast, 34.6 per cent of male wine-drinkers consume it ‘on premises’, and 32.5 per cent do so at friends’ or relatives’ homes.”
“Not surprisingly, however, the comfort of home is the most popular place to enjoy a vino, for male and female drinkers alike (85.5per cent and 80.3 per cent respectively),” he said.
While the proportion of women who drink wine has fallen slightly over the last decade (from 51.8 per cent to 49 per cent, the decrease in male wine drinkers has been much more marked (from 48.1 per cent to 41.2 per cent ). Beer remains the clear favourite among Aussie men, consumed by 58.1 per cent of them in any given four weeks.
