The beer drinking Aussie yobbo is fast becoming an extinct species, with new data from the ABS showing that alcohol consumption has fallen to 50-year lows, with beer consumption crashing to record lows:
There were 185.8 million litres of pure alcohol available for consumption from alcoholic beverages in Australia in 2016-17. This was a decrease from the amount available for consumption in 2015-16 (188.2 million litres).
A 3.4% decrease in pure alcohol from beer (or 2,593 thousand litres) between 2015-16 and 2016-17 was responsible for the overall decline in the volume of pure alcohol available. Comparatively less change in pure alcohol volumes was seen from pre-mixed or ready to drink beverages (RTDs) decreasing 0.7% (76 thousand litres) and cider decreasing 1.3% (82 thousand litres). In contrast, alcohol from wine grew 0.4% (299 thousand litres) and spirits grew 0.2% (45 thousand litres) over the year to 2016-17.
Of the total amount of pure alcohol available for consumption in 2016-17, beer contributed 39.2%, wine 38.3%, spirits 13.1%, RTDs 6.0% and cider 3.4%. Although beer has remained the leading source of alcohol over recent years, its share of total alcohol consumed has declined 2.1 percentage points since 2011-12 (from 41.2%). The declining share of alcohol from beer over the five years to 2016-17 has been taken up by wine and cider (up 0.6 and 1.7 percentage points respectively), while the share from spirits and RTDs was down by 0.3 percentage points.
On a per capita basis there were 9.4 litres of pure alcohol available for consumption per person in 2016-17, down from the amount in 2015-16 (9.7 litres) and is the lowest level since 1961-62 (9.4 litres).
Reduced alcohol consumption is positive from many social standpoints. But it has implications for government coffers in terms of excise revenue.
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
