GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- Almost one third of Americans now report that drinking has been a source of trouble in their family, up seven points from last year and now at the highest rate recorded since Gallup began asking the question in 1950. At the same time, the number of adults who say that they, personally, sometimes drink more than they should has fallen from a high of 32% in 1985 to only 22% today.
These changes could reflect real changes in drinking patterns, or, alternatively, could reflect a decline in the social acceptability of admitting to heavy drinking at the same time that willingness to report family problems has increased.
Overall, about sixty percent of the public drinks alcoholic beverages; the rest are teetotalers. Beer is the preferred type of alcoholic beverage, followed by wine and hard liquor, although preferences vary dramatically by age and gender. These and other findings are part of the Gallup Poll's latest audit of the drinking patterns of the U.S. adult public.
Number of Drinkers Generally Stable
The percentage of Americans who say they drink alcoholic beverages
- as opposed to being total abstainers - varies slightly from year
to year, but has generally hovered around the 60% level for the
past decade. In June of this year, 61% of Americans said that they
"use alcoholic beverages."
A substantial plurality of America's drinkers, now 45%, continue to cite beer as the alcoholic beverage they drink most often; however, a third of the public, 32%, now prefers wine. This is the highest figure for wine consumption recorded by Gallup in the last several years, and is five percentage points higher than a year ago. Only 18% cite liquor as their favorite beverage.
Wine Much More Popular with Women
Beer is the overwhelming first alcoholic beverage choice for men,
preferred over wine by a 63% to 16% margin. Women, in stark
contrast, prefer wine over beer by a 48% to 27% margin. To the
extent that wine is growingin popularity, it appears to be among
women, but not men.
Age is also a factor, with a majority of the 18-29 group choosing beer while those over 50 prefer wine. No group prefers hard liquor as their number one choice; however, it appears to be more popular with older than younger Americans, preferred by one quarter of those aged 50 and older, compared to only 16% of those under 50.
Women More Apt to Cite Family Problems
Slightly fewer Americans this year than in the 1996 survey admit to
sometimes drinking more than they should -- 22%, compared with 25%.
However, when asked if "drinking has ever been a cause of trouble
in your family," a question posed by Gallup since 1950, 30% said
yes -- the highest percentage ever recorded, and 7 points higher
than last year.
In the current survey, men and women indicate similar levels of drinking as a cause offamily problems: 27% of men and 32% of women admit to family difficulties attributable to alcohol.
Curiously, geography is also related to drinking problems: only 24% of easterners cite family problems due to drinking, compared with 37% of westerners. However, the percentage of people who drink in each region is roughly the same.
METHODOLOGY
The results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly
selected national sample of 1,013 adults, 18 years and older,
conducted June 26-29, 1997. For results based on samples of this
size, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the error
attributable to sampling and other random effects could be plus or
minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question
wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can
introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion
polls.
Do you have occasion to use alcoholic beverages such as liquor, wine or beer, or are you a total abstainer?
| Drink Alcoholic Beverages - Trend | |
| 1997 Jun 26-29 | 61% |
| 1996 Jun 27-30 | 58 |
| 1994 Jun 3-6 | 65 |
| 1992 | 64 |
| 1990 | 57 |
| 1989 | 56 |
| 1988 | 63 |
| 1987 | 65 |
| 1984 | 64 |
| 1983 | 65 |
| 1982 | 65 |
| 1981 | 70 |
| 1979 | 69 |
| 1978 | 71 |
| 1977 | 71 |
| 1976 | 71 |
| 1974 | 68 |
| 1969 | 64 |
| 1966 | 65 |
| 1964 | 62 |
| 1958 | 55 |
| 1957 | 58 |
| 1956 | 60 |
| 1952 | 60 |
| 1951 | 59 |
| 1950 | 60 |
| 1949 | 58 |
| 1947 | 63 |
| 1946 | 67 |
| 1945 | 67 |
| 1939 | 58 |
(Asked of drinkers, 634 respondents, ±4%) Do you most often drink liquor, wine, or beer?
| Type of Beverage Preferred - Trend | ||||
| 1992 | 1994 | 1996 | 1997 | |
| Beer | 47% | 47% | 46% | 45% |
| Wine | 27 | 29 | 27 | 32 |
| Liquor | 21 | 18 | 20 | 18 |
| All equally (vol.) | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 |
| Other (vol.) | 1 | 1 | 0 | * |
| No opinion | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| ___ 100% |
___ 100% |
___ 100% |
___ 100% |
|
| 1997 - by Gender & Age | ||||||
| Beer | Wine | Liquor | All (vol.) | Other (vol.) | No opinion | |
| Sex | ||||||
| Male | 63% | 16 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| Female | 22% | 48 | 27 | 2 | * | 1 |
| Age | ||||||
| 18-29 | 59% | 18 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 30-49 | 48% | 32 | 15 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 50-64 | 35% | 40 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 65 & over | 22% | 42 | 28 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| *Less than 0.5% | ||||||
(Full sample) Has drinking ever been a cause of trouble in your family?
| Caused Family Problems? - Trend | |||
| Yes | No | No opinion | |
| 1997 Jun 26-29 | 30% | 70 | * |
| 1994 Jun 3-6 | 27% | 72 | 1 |
| 1992 | 24% | 76 | nr |
| 1990 | 23% | 76 | 1 |
| 1989 | 19% | 81 | nr |
| 1987 | 24% | 76 | nr |
| 1985 | 21% | 79 | nr |
| 1984 | 18% | 82 | nr |
| 1981 | 22% | 78 | nr |
| 1978 | 22% | 78 | nr |
| 1976 | 17% | 83 | nr |
| 1974 | 12% | 88 | nr |
| 1966 | 12% | 88 | nr |
| 1950 | 14% | 86 | nr |
| 1997 - By Gender & Region | |||
| Yes | No | No opinion | |
| Sex | |||
| Male | 27% | 73 | * |
| Female | 32% | 68 | 0 |
| Region | |||
| East | 24% | 76 | * |
| Midwest | 28% | 72 | 0 |
| South | 31% | 69 | 0 |
| West | 37% | 63 | 0 |
| * Less than 0.5% | |||
