Sep 3, 2018
Australians are drinking the least alcohol they have in more than 50 years.
That’s what you would find, on average, in 224 stubbies of beer, 38 bottles of wine, 17 bottles of cider, 33 cans of pre-mixed drinks and four bottles of spirits.
A drop in the amount of beer drunk has been the biggest contributor to the overall fall in the year.
Australians downed 3.4 per cent less pure alcohol from beer, or 2.6 million litres in 2016-17, compared to the year before.
But it’s still beer that Aussies like to drink the most, with the beverage accounting for 39.2 per cent of all alcohol consumed in the year.
Wine was a close second, accounting for 38.3 per cent of pure alcohol, followed by spirits (13.1 per cent), ready-to-drink beverages (6.0 per cent) and cider (3.4 per cent).
However, they can also underestimate the true level of alcohol drunk by each Australian, given about a fifth simply don’t drink at all.