Beer continues to be the alcoholic beverage U.S. drinkers say they drink most often; but, for the first time in Gallup trends, liquor essentially ties wine in second place.
The latest results are from Gallup’s July 1-12 Consumption Habits survey and are based on telephone interviews with U.S. national adults, aged 18 and older.
Twenty-nine percent of drinkers name liquor as their preferred drink. That is up from 19% a year ago although similar to the 26% who said so in 2017. Despite the lower percentage measured last year, the broad trend is one of increased preference for liquor. The average percentage preferring liquor has risen from 19% in the 1990s to 21% in the early 2000s to 23% over the past five years.
Thirty percent of drinkers now say they most often drink wine. That is on the low end of the range seen over the past two decades, with between 30% and 35% most years saying they prefer wine. However, wine drinking today is still more common than in the 1990s when just over a quarter of U.S. drinkers preferred it.\
Drinkers’ increased preference for liquor has occurred primarily among young and middle-aged adults, with little movement among those 50 and older. Offsetting this trend, young adults have grown less partial to wine while middle-aged adults are less likely to say they prefer beer.
Still, some enduring patterns continue to hold. The majority of men who drink (55%) say they most often drink beer, while women are more oriented toward wine (45%). A higher percentage of women drinkers this year cite liquor than beer, but this bears watching in subsequent readings to see if the change is meaningful.
Adults under 55 are the age groups most likely to prefer beer as well as liquor, while adults over 55 are the most likely to prefer wine.
Residents of the East and Midwest are most partial to beer. While no particular region is particularly oriented to wine or liquor, the Midwest lags behind the other regions in preferring wine.
There is also a socio-economic component to alcohol preferences, with higher education and high-income Americans being above par in preferring wine. By contrast, lower education and lower-income Americans are the most partial to beer.
The average number of drinks consumed holds steady at 4.0, the Gallup survey found.
Gallup trends indicate that alcohol consumption is a bit more restrained today than it was from 2002 to 2010 when drinkers recorded consuming an average 4.6 drinks per week. Still, drinking is not as light as the five years earlier, from 1996 to 2001, when the average was 3.4 drinks.