The boost to the nation’s alcohol consumption during the pandemic fell 1.8 per cent points to 67.9 percent in the 12 months to June, according to the latest Roy Morgan’s Alcohol Consumption Report.

Report data showed the new kid on the popular alcohol block is the ready to drink (RTD) category as Australians re-emerge from their homes. Numbers showed a standout rise in ready to drink fans from 2.7m Australians (13.5%) to 3.3m Australians (16.7%).

Roy Morgan chief executive officer Michele Levine said increasing popularity for seltzers – spirits like vodka mixed with sparking water – over the last few years was helping drive the growing consumption of RTDs generally.

“‘Hard seltzers’ began to hit the Australian market in significant numbers in 2019, just before the pandemic struck, and these newer alcoholic products are still attracting an increasing array of customers,” she said.

Wine is still the most popular drink of choice even as the number of Australians drinking wine dropped from 9.2m Australians (46.3%) to 8.9m (44.6%) – a decrease of 1.7% points (-297,000) from a year ago.

The older demographic continues to prop these numbers up, those most likely to be drinking wine are aged 65-79 (51.1%), although the 50-64-year-olds are nipping at their heels with a 1.2 point rise in wine consumption from a year ago.

Levine said Australians have lived through a tumultuous past two years with the pandemic leading to rolling lockdowns around the country including six lockdowns totalling around nine months in Melbourne.

“The extensive disruption to people’s day-to-day lives, and the restrictions on travel for most of this time, led to several changes of behaviour. One of the most prominent was the increasing consumption of alcohol during the pandemic years of 2020-21,” she said.

“The ‘shock’ of the pandemic disrupted a longer-term trend of declining alcohol consumption amongst the Australian population which is now reasserting itself. In the year to June 2006 nearly three-quarters of Australian adults, 73.5%, drank an alcoholic beverage in an average four weeks.”

She said despite the consumption of the ‘big three’ alcohol types of wine, beer and spirits all being down on a year ago, the consumption of wine and spirits was still well above pre-pandemic levels.

Beer lost ground from its pandemic highs with 6.7m Australians (33.3%) now drinking beer, down 2.3% points (-428,000) on a year ago. Spirits are clearly the third favourite type of alcohol with 6.1m Australians (30.4%) now drinking spirits, down 2.8% points (-538,000) on mid-2021.

The Roy Morgan Single Source consumer survey bases the data on interviews with more than 60,000 Australians each year.

“Although beer did enjoy an increase in consumption during the last two years, only 33.3% of Australian adults now drink beer in an average four weeks,” Levine said.

“The decline in beer drinking since 2005 has been more sustained than any other type of alcohol and the early signs are that the short-term pandemic impact on beer drinking has not been enough to halt the long-term trend.”