Beer Is Still The Favorite Alcoholic Drink In The U.S.

The Gallup Poll recently completed their yearly survey of the drinking habits of Americans. They found that 63% of the population drinks alcoholic beverages, while 36% do not. Of that 63%, beer is the favorite drink (42%), followed by wine (34%) and liquor (19%).

The survey was done between July 1st and 11th of a national sample of 1,033 adults, and has a 4 point margin of error.

Beer Is Still The Leading Alcoholic Beverage In The U.S.

The Gallup Poll has done its annual survey of alcohol usage in the United States. The survey was done between July 13th and 17th of a random national sample of 1,023 adults, and has a margin of error of 4 points.

It shows that nearly two-thirds of American adults use alcohol (65%), while only 35% abstain completely. Beer is still the favorite of Americans at 43%, while 32% drink wine, and 20% prefer hard liquor.

Most Americans Drink Alcohol - At Least Occasionally

I'm not too sure this has anything to do with politics -- unless you think the voters were drunk last Tuesday, or you are afraid the non-drinkers will try again to impose an alcohol prohibition on this nation. I wish the first was true, because then we would at least have an excuse for the idiotic decisions many voters made on election day. And I doubt the second could ever happen again. I just found it interesting, and thought you might also.

It turns out that around 64% of all Americans drink alcohol -- some daily and others only occasionally. The charts above show the figures. The chart below shows the alcoholic beverage the drinkers prefer when they do choose to imbibe. About equal numbers prefer beer and wine (and the two will switch places between being first and second most popular according to the year and the poll). Liquor is the choice of about 1/4 of drinkers.

The charts above and the chart below were all taken from a Rasmussen Poll conducted on November 5th and 6th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, and has a margin of error of about 3 points.

Gallup Releases Its Latest Survey On U.S. Alcohol Use

(This image is from alternativereel.com.)

The use of alcohol is as old as civilization itself, and the United Staes is no exception. The drink of choice has changed over time, but alcohol has existed in this country in some form since before its birth.

Each year the Gallup Poll does a survey on alcohol use in the United States -- both on the prevalence of alcohol use and the favorite drink through which that alcohol is imbibed. This year's Gallup Poll was conducted between July 7th and 10th of a random national sample of 1,013 adults, with a 4 point margin of error. The results of the survey for this year -- and for the 15 years in this century are illustrated by the two charts below.

One thing I found a bit surprising is that alcohol use by Americans has remained fairly constant throughout the last 15 years (the years of the 21st Century). I had thought that alcohol use might have gone up significantly because of the recession (to dull the pain caused by the terrible economy) or gone down (because of the lack of money with which to buy it). But that is not what happened. Alcohol use fluctuated between 60% and 67% -- a pretty narrow margin.

And beer is again gaining in popularity. In two of the last three years, beer was only one percentage point more popular than wine (and only four points higher in that other year). But 2014 has seen beer rebound -- and post a 10 point advantage over wine. Liquor is still a fairly distant third, and its use by alcohol users has remained pretty constant in this century (in the low 20's).