Beer Ascendant
America has put down the pinot and picked up the pale. Well, Americans under 50, anyway. This just in from Gallup:
Also of note:
Beer has regained a comfortable margin over wine when U.S. drinkers are asked to name which alcoholic beverage they most often drink. 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.However, trends are down for alcohol, so the swing won't necessarily translate into continued strong sales for beer: "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."
Also of note:
- Sixty-two percent of Americans say they drink alcohol, a percentage that has varied little in the last 10 years.
- "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.
- 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.