E-Malt.com News article: USA: American drinkers still prefer beer to other beverages

Wine virtually ties beer as the top choice when US drinkers are asked whether they most often drink liquor, wine, or beer, according to a July 2011 Gallup poll, Marketing Charts.com reported on August, 2.

Gallup now finds nearly as many US drinkers naming wine (35%) as beer (36%), while liquor still registers a distant third at 23%.

The 36% of US drinkers favoring beer in this poll ties for the lowest Gallup has recorded for the beverage since initiating this measure in 1992. It is also a 12% drop from 41% in 2010. Meanwhile, preference for wine increased 10% from 32% last year.

The other 36% reading for beer came in 2005, at the same time Americans’ preference for wine temporarily surged to 39%. Beer regained a solid lead at the top spot in 2006 which lasted until this year.

The 35% now favoring wine and 23% liquor are near the record highs for these beverages, although preferences have generally fluctuated around the current levels since about 2003.

Preference for beer declined among all age groups this year, but it fell the most among young adults age 18-34, dropping about 23% to 39% today from 51% in 2010. By contrast, middle-aged adults’ preference for beer fell just 7%, from 44% to 41%, as did older adults’ beer preference (from 29% to 27%).

Younger adults’ decreased preference for beer is accompanied by slight increases in their preferences for liquor and wine. In addition, 2% of young adults this year said they most often drink cordials, up from less than 1% in 2010 and in most prior years.
Gallup observes strong demographic differences in drink preferences, particularly along gender, age and socio-economic lines. For example, nearly half of male drinkers, 48%, say they most often drink beer, followed by liquor at 26% and wine at 20%, while 51% of female drinkers prefer wine. Men prefer beer to wine by a 140% differential, while women prefer wine to beer by a similar 132% differential. This pattern is consistent with prior years, although the preference for beer is down slightly among both groups compared with 2010.

Older adults tend to prefer wine, while, despite the recent decline among young adults, the plurality of younger and middle-aged adults favor beer. As a result of these distinctions by age and gender, there are extremely sharp differences in drink preferences between younger men and older women, with most of the former preferring beer, and the latter, wine. Older men and younger women have somewhat more varied preferences.

Geographically, beer enjoys its greatest popularity in the Midwest, where 46% of drinkers prefer it compared to 31% who prefer wine, a 48% differential. Meanwhile wine beats beer in the East by a relatively slim 7.5% margin (40% to 37%), in the South by 15% (34% to 29%) and in the West by 11% (35%). Liquor is about 1.6 times as popular in the South and West as in the Midwest and East.

Adults with no college education and those in lower-income households are also much more likely to favor beer. Nonwhites are more likely than whites to favor liquor (33% to 20%, a 65% margin of preference).

About the Data: Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted July 7-10, 2011, with a random sample of 1,016 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia.


10 August, 2011