Alcohol consumption
Background
Alcohol has a unique place in Australian society. While the number of people abstaining from alcohol has gradually increased over time, a majority of people in Australia do consume alcohol, and of those that do, most drink at safe levels. However, alcohol can cause harms in many ways, as it contributes to disease and illness, violence and assaults, avoidable injury, motor accidents, and birth defects (Department of Health and Aged Care 2019).
Questions in the National Drug Strategy Household Survey can be used to monitor risky alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms, as well as other risky behaviours such as alcohol consumption during pregnancy and by those under the age of 18.
The number of people putting their health at risk remains stable
In December 2020, the National Health and Medical Research Council released the revised Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol (NHMRC 2020). These guidelines were created following a review of the health effects of consuming alcohol and define drinking behaviours that Australians can follow to reduce their risk of alcohol-related disease or injury.
Consumption of more than 10 standard drinks per week, and/or more than 4 standard drinks in a single day, represents risky alcohol consumption, that is, a level of alcohol consumption that is likely to put a person’s health at risk. Specifications on how survey questions can be used to derive risky drinking are available online (AIHW 2021).
All risky drinking data in this report have been calculated relative to the 2020 guidelines, including years before those guidelines were released.
The proportion of people drinking alcohol at levels above the guideline recommendations has not changed substantially between 2016 (33%) and 2022–2023 (31%) (Figure 14). This equates to about 6.6 million people consuming alcohol at risky levels in 2022–2023, the same as the number of people doing so in 2016 and slightly below the peak of 6.8 million people doing so in 2010.
Figure 14: Risky drinking behaviours, people aged 14 and over, 2007 to 2022–2023
Source: NDSHS 2022–2023, Table 4.27.
Similar trends occurred in individual risky drinking behaviours:
- 1 in 4 people (25%) consumed more than 10 standard drinks per week on average in both 2019 and 2022–2023, down from 30% in 2010.
- Around 1 in 4 people (24%) consumed more than 4 standard drinks in a single day at least monthly, similar to 2019 (25%) but down from 2010 when 29% of people did so.
Generally, younger people were more likely to have exceeded the alcohol guidelines by drinking more than 4 standard drinks in a single day at least monthly, while older people were more likely to do so by consuming more than 10 standard drinks per week on average.
It is possible that people consumed alcohol at risky levels because they were not aware of the guidelines. To test this, in 2022–2023, the survey asked people whether they were aware that Australia has guidelines that provide advice on how to reduce their health risks from drinking alcohol. A majority of people (62%) reported that they were, and people who consumed alcohol at risky levels were even more likely to say that they were aware of the guidelines (69%).
Underage drinking also remains stable
The Australian alcohol guidelines (NHMRC 2020) have different advice for people under the age of 18: To reduce the risk of injury and other harms to health, children and people under the age of 18 should not drink alcohol.
The proportion of people aged 14–17 who had consumed alcohol in the previous year has dropped considerably over time, from 7 in 10 people in 2001 (69%) to just 3 in 10 (31%) in 2022–2023. However, much of this reduction occurred between 2001 and 2016, with the proportion of people under the age of 18 consuming alcohol remaining stable since 2016 (Figure 15).
Figure 15: Consumption of alcohol in the previous 12 months by gender, people aged 14–17, 2001 to 2022–2023
Source: NDSHS 2022–2023, Table 4.6.
In fact, there is some evidence of an increasing proportion of young females drinking alcohol since 2016 (29%), with 35% having done so in the previous 12 months in 2022–2023. This mirrors the disproportionate increases in other risky behaviours among young females.
There was also a positive shift in alcohol consumption among people aged 14 to 17. The proportion drinking more than 10 standard drinks per week on average or more than 4 standard drinks in a single day at least once a month declined between 2019 (9.5%) and 2022–2023 (5.5%).
For the first time in 2022–2023, people were asked what they believe about alcohol consumption among 16- and 17-year-olds:
- Almost 1 in 3 people (32%) believe that a 16- or 17-year-old can occasionally drink 1 or 2 standard drinks without putting their health at risk, while half (50%) of people aged 14–17 agreed with this statement.
- Around 1 in 4 people (24%) believe that it is beneficial to provide a 16- or 17-year-old with a little bit of alcohol in preparation for drinking as an adult, as do 1 in 3 (33%) people aged 14–17.
Growing numbers of women experienced harms from people under the influence of alcohol
Nationally, the proportion of people reporting that they had been verbally abused, physically abused, or put in fear by someone under the influence of alcohol was similar in 2019 and 2022–2023 (both 21%). However, the story was different for females and males.
The number of women who experienced harm from someone under the influence of alcohol rose from 2.2 million in 2019 to 2.4 million in 2022–2023, while the number of males who experienced harm fell from 2.3 million to 2.2 million.