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In the early part of the twenty-first century, beer was favored by 36% of alcohol-consuming adults in the U.S. At mid-century, wine made inroads when it tied and then edged ahead of beer. This summer, according to a Gallup poll, beer’s slice of the alcohol consumption preference pie in the U.S. is 42%, the highest preference of all the alcohol beverages.
The adult U.S. population approximately equals 248 million. Of them, 63% (more than 6 in 10) consume alcohol. That’s the same percentage of alcohol consuming adults in the U.S. when Gallup instituted its first alcohol-related poll eight decades ago. U.S. adults who prefer beer today totals about 65.5 million people. At 34%, wine is preferred by 53 million alcohol consuming adults, and at 19%, spirits attract 29.6 million. It is no wonder the U.S. remains the largest opportunity market for alcohol producers.
No one should be surprised by the beer poll results. Gallup started tracking beer in 1992, and it was the preferred alcohol beverage then, too, and anyone in the alcohol beverage industry or anyone who studies its history in the U.S. should find the poll results unsurprising: the country has been a beer drinker over numerous generations. It’s possible that at one time more breweries than bakeries vied for grain in the U.S. Northeast.
For a brief period—2011 to 2013—wine consumption blipped over beer. Although in the U.S. an adult must be 21 to gain legal access to alcohol, Gallup reports that in those two years alcohol consumers between ages 18 and 29 preferred wine over beer by a few percentage points. Gallup says between 2011 and 2013 beer experienced its lowest preference, 36% of alcohol consuming adults. Since then, and probably with the help of a burst in the craft beer category, beer has regained its lead.
One surprising stat from this poll is that older, more affluent Americans have begun to prefer beer over other alcohols. From 2014 to 2018, 42% of U.S. alcohol consuming adults between ages 50 and 64 said they prefer beer, a 9% increase over that age group’s beer preference from 2011 to 2013. And the beer preference of those over age 65 went from 26% in 2010 to 29% in 2018. Gallup offers no particular reason for this phenomenon. Could it be price?
Gallup says in the five years from 2013 to 2018, beer has become more popular with men, with adults holding a college degree and in households earning a minimum $75,000 annually. Here is a brief synopsis of adult alcohol consumers in the U.S. who prefered beer between 2014 - 2018:
Age 18 to 29: 45%
Age 30 to 49: 47%
Age 50 to 64: 42%
Age 65 & up: 29%
Males: 59%; Females: 24%
College Graduates: 38%; No College degree: 44%
<$30,000 income: 41%; $30,000-$74,999: 44%; >$75,000: 39%
Gallup says that its research has found that U.S. adults with a higher education and a high income are more likely to admit to alcohol consumption than those with less education and less money. The random sample for this poll was of 1,033 adults (678 who said they drink alcohol) aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Gallup claims a “margin of sampling error at ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.” Respondent telephone numbers were selected randomely, “a minimum quota of 70% cellphone respondents and 30% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region.”
Contrary to what has often been indicated by producers and marketers, wine appears to not have become a major part of U.S. culture just yet.
