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).