Beer Is Becoming 'Less Dominant' in America, Here's What People Are Drinking In Its Place

Almost two-thirds of Americans say they drink alcohol, whether that’s beer, wine, or spirits. That’s according to the pollsters at Gallup, which surveyed 1,015 adults in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., last month. 

Sixty-two percent of respondents said they “have occasion to use alcoholic beverages,” which is close to the 63% average that dates back to 1939, Gallup’s earliest poll result for this particular question. (The lowest percentage of respondents who reported consuming alcohol was 55% in 1958, while the highest annual percentage — 71% — was reported for three straight years between 1976 and 1978.)

Of the respondents who reported that yes, they did drink alcoholic beverages, the majority (69%) said that they had had at least one alcoholic drink within the past seven days, with 32% responding that they’d had a drink within 24 hours of the survey, and 37% responding that they’d had their most recent adult beverage within the past two to seven days. According to Gallup, the average U.S. drinker reported having four drinks within the past seven days. 

Overall, the demographic groups most likely to report that they drank were middle-aged (between the ages of 35-54), had household incomes of $100,000 or more, were college-educated, and reported attending religious services less frequently than once a week. 

The respondents who said they did not drink alcohol were asked for the main reasons for their abstinence. The most popular responses were because they “simply have no desire or do not want to” (24%), while other popular responses were disliking alcoholic beverages; having the belief that alcoholic beverages were unhealthy or because of existing health conditions; being afraid of the consequences or having bad previous experiences with alcohol; or due to their religious beliefs. 

Gallup also asked the drinkers what their booze of choice was, and beer remains the most frequently consumed drink, with 37% of respondents saying that they drink it “most often,” followed by liquor (31%) and wine (29%). Again, there were some demographic differences: men were more than twice as likely as women (53% to 22%) to say that they most frequently drank beer, while women were around three times as likely as men (44% to 15%) to say that they were more likely to drink wine. 

The youngest age group (between the ages of 18 to 34) reported drinking beer and liquor more frequently than the other two age demographics; the other two demos opted for wine almost twice as often as their younger counterparts. 

Interestingly, Gallup noted that beer was “less dominant” as a drink choice than it was in the early 2000s, while liquor has gained on wine as an increasingly popular go-to beverage. Thirty-one percent of drinkers said that some kind of liquor was “their favorite alcoholic drink,” which was Gallup’s highest percentage on record. 

If that translates to a slightly shorter line at our favorite wine bar, we’re all for it.