29 July, 2008 - Princeton, NJ - Gallup's annual update on Americans' drinking habits shows beer again edging out wine as the adult beverage of choice. The percentage of Americans who drink any type of alcohol is stable, though the poll shows that more Americans are regular drinkers than a decade ago. Americans are dubious about the health benefits from regular drinking, as little more than one in five says drinking daily is good for one's health.
Favorite Drink
The 64% of Americans who say that they consume alcohol show a slight preference for beer (40%) over wine (34%) as their alcoholic beverage of choice, with liquor the favorite of 22%. Beer has typically enjoyed an advantage over wine throughout the years, but that advantage has narrowed recently, as a greater proportion of American drinkers say they drink wine most often and a lesser proportion say they drink beer. A 2005 poll showed the two were essentially tied, but beer has maintained a slight edge over wine in the past two polls. The percentage who rate liquor as their beverage of choice has been fairly stable over time.
Male, female, younger, and older drinkers have different beverage preferences, primarily in regards to beer versus wine. Beer is the favored beverage among male drinkers and younger drinkers, while wine is the top choice among female drinkers and older drinkers.
Drinking Habits
Gallup has found little change in the incidence of drinking among the general public: The 64% of Americans who identify as drinkers in the July 2007 poll nearly matches the historical average of 63% since 1939. But, there has been a bit of a revival in regular drinking in recent years. In the early to mid-1990s, just over half of U.S. drinkers said they had consumed alcohol in the past week. Since 2002, that percentage has been 65% or higher in each poll, and surpassed 70% in several of these years. The current levels of regular drinking are similar to what Gallup found in the 1980s.
(All sources: Gallup)
Because of the increase in regular drinking, the average number of weekly drinks Americans enjoy has increased significantly. According to the latest poll, the average drinker consumed 4.8 alcoholic beverages in the past week. Prior to 2001, the average number of weekly drinks had always been below four drinks, but has been above that mark since then.
The rise in regular drinking has occurred at about the same time some scientists have argued that daily moderate drinking has health benefits. (Whether the two are irrefutably linked in any way is unclear.) In the poll, 36% of drinkers reported having a drink in the past 24 hours, the same percentage as in the past three years.
Most Americans are, however, dubious of the claim of better health from drinking, as 22% say drinking in moderation is good for one's health. Twenty-five percent take the opposite view and believe that moderate drinking is detrimental to one's health, while the greatest percentage, 49%, believes it makes no difference. These views have been highly stable over the past seven years.
Those who drink daily are somewhat more likely to believe in the health benefits of regular, moderate drinking. Thirty-three percent of daily drinkers believe it is good for one's health, 55% say it makes no difference, and only 10% believe it is bad for one's health.
Survey Methods
These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,004 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted July 12-15, 2007.