In 2020, 494 million litres of alcoholic drinks were available for sale in New Zealand (this is a proxy measure of the alcohol we consume):

• 293 million litres of beer;
  
• 113 million litres of wine;
  
• 89 million litres of spirits and spirit-based drinks.

Beer comprises 59% of the total volume of alcoholic beverages consumed in NZ, followed by wine (23%) and spirits (18%)

The figure of 494 million litres is a small (0.8%) increase from 2019 (491 million litres).

However, these beverages are often different alcohol strengths (e.g. a beer can be 4% but spirits can be 40%), so the volume of what we drink doesn't tell us how much alcohol we have consumed as a country. Consumption of the 494 million litres equated to 36 million litres of pure alcohol, rose 1.9% from 35.3 million litres in 2019.

In 2020, 8.7 litres of pure alcohol were available for each person aged 15. To put this into perspective, it is the same as every person aged over 18 years consuming two standard drinks per person every day of the year (i.e. 2 cans of beer (330ml, 4% alcohol) or 2 glasses of wine (12.5%; 100ml)). In reality, New Zealand drinkers don't all drink the same amount. We know that approximately 46% of all alcohol sold in New Zealand is consumed in heavy drinking occasions, ie. 8 or more standard drinks for men and 4 or more standard drinks for women. 

In 2020, beer, wine and spirits contributed almost equally to our pure alcohol intake. Beer contributed 12.9 million litres or pure alcohol, wine 11.7 million litres, followed by spirits with 11.3 million litres.

In relation to NZers consumption of pure alcohol (ethanol), we consume an almost equal amount from beer (36%), wine (32.4%) and spirits (31.6%)

New Zealanders are increasingly becoming spirits drinkers - in 2004 spirits contributed 23% of pure alcohol intake, in 2020 spirits contributed 31.6%.

Because spirits are taxed at the highest rate in the excise tax structure (given their high strength) the increase in spirits consumption gave a $119 million windfall in tax revenue to the Government In 2020, Government excise revenue from alcohol was $1.193 billion, up from $1.074 billion in 2019. 

Alcohol available for consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic

Alcohol availability is measured on a quarterly basis. In Aotearoa New Zealand, national lockdown occurred in Quarter 2 (April, May, June). During this time, pubs were closed.

In Quarter 2, the overall amount of pure alcohol available for consumption (per capita) dropped by 9%.

Following lockdown, if New Zealand drinkers had returned to their (normal) heavy drinking patterns for Quarters 3 and 4, overall alcohol availability in 2020 should have been lower than previous years (due to the decline during lockdown). Whilst wine availability increased by 5%, spirits availability reduced by 27% and spirits-based drinks reduced by 23%.

Unfortunately, New Zealanders compensated for earlier declines in consumption by adding that volume to later quarters of 2020, resulting in an overall annual increase of 1.9% in pure alcohol consumption.

• Quarter 3 (July–Sept 2020) showed pure alcohol availability per capita was 10% higher than in the same quarter in the previous year. Consumption of wine (12% increase), beer (20% increase), spirits (9% increase) and spirits-based drinks (4%) all increased.
• During Q4 (Oct–Dec 2020), spirits and spirits-based drinks (RTDs) consumption increased substantially by 21% and 16% compared to the same quarter in 2019. Beer availability declined by 9%.

Note that about 15% of spirits consumption is normally unrecorded - being bought from duty free outlets. As duty-free outlets have been closed during the pandemic, consumers would have had to purchase their spirits from local outlets. This may partly explain the substantial increases in spirits availability. What was previously hidden in our figures of national consumption is now in available to be seen.

COVID-19 AND NZ DRINKING

New Zealand drinking compared to other countries

New Zealanders typically drink a large amount of alcohol in a drinking occasion. Although we drink less (overall) than the Irish and British (and slightly less than Australians), we drink more than Americans, Canadians and South Africans. 

We also need to note that our assessment of per capita consumption in New Zealand, when we are comparing countries, is out of date. This is because our per capita consumption calculations are not based on the alcohol content of products in our current market (the per capita calculations assume products have a lower alcohol strength than they currently do). For this reason, we believe that the per capita consumption estimate in New Zealand (of 8.9 litres per person) is likely to be an under-estimate of the true value.

Be careful of estimates of per capita alcohol consumption in NZ; the estimates are based on the concentration of alcohol in products sold in the 1970-80s

DRINKING IN NEW ZEALAND

Our drinking landscape has changed considerably over the last 30 years. We have seen dramatic increases in the number of places selling alcohol, the affordability and types of alcoholic products available, and use of innovative marketing strategies to advertise them. 

Today, there are over 11,000 places that sell alcohol:

• 1641 club licences
• 6628 on-licences (bars, restaurants, café, etc)
• 2904 off-licences (9 auctioneer, 942 bottle stores, 92 brewers, 9 caterers, 58 chartered clubs, 41 complementary, 4 conveyances, 16 distillery, 3 function centres, 341 grocery store, 150 hotels, 128 other, 266 mail order, 51 restaurant, 327 supermarket, 233 taverns, 234 wine makers)
  

A brief history of the liberalisation of our alcohol laws

AVAILABILITY​

Beginning in 1989, new liquor laws increased the availability of alcohol across New Zealand - wine entered our supermarkets in 1989 and beer became available in supermarkets and grocery stores in 1999.

The number of places that sold alcohol more than doubled from to 6,300 in 1990 to 14,200 in 2009. Alcohol was prohibited from being sold in dairies in our new 2012 liquor laws.

Today, around 75% of all alcohol in New Zealand is sold from off-licences: 43% from bottle stores and 32% from supermarkets and grocery stores. Often at very cheap prices.

More liquor outlets are concentrated in low income suburbs than more socio-economically advantaged suburbs.

The increasingly availability of Ready to Drinks (RTDs) has had a huge impact on heavy drinking in New Zealand, particularly among young girls.

AFFORDABILITY

Alcohol has become more affordable over time. This is especially so for wine.

In total, New Zealanders spend around $5 billion every year on alcohol.

ADVERTISING

Until 1980, alcohol advertising on radio and television was regulated by law - only advertising of outlets and services was permitted, but not corporate or brand advertising.

In 1991, alcohol brand advertising was permitted on television after 9.00pm. However, to provide balance against alcohol industry advertising, free broadcasting time was to be allocated to health promotion messages. In 1992, alcohol advertising was permitted under self-regulation by the industry. For more information, click here.

Research in 2004 found that within prime-time television viewing in New Zealand, a scene depicting alcohol occurred every 9 minutes.

In 2009, it was estimated that $200,000 was spent each day advertising alcohol in New Zealand.

PURCHASE AGE

In 1999, the minimum legal age to purchase alcohol was reduced from 20 to 18 years.

Everything we care deeply about will start to improve when we reduce alcohol harm. With less alcohol harm, we can; improve our mental wellbeing, reduce suicide and family harm, have safer roads and communities, improve our physical health (e.g. fewer injuries and cancers) and lift employment and productivity. We can open up space to enable genuine conversations, trust and creativity.

As a result of substantial cost savings from reduced harm, every New Zealander stands to benefit. Our core services and sectors, such as ACC, police, health, welfare and justice will experience the greatest gains from reduced harm.

The possibilities are endless. Watch the video below and click the links to learn more.

Past year drinking

In 2020/21, the prevalence of past-year drinking among New Zealand adults aged 15+ years was 78.5% (equating to 3,248,000 adults) 

This prevalence of past-year drinking in 2020/21 was significantly lower than in 2019/20 (81.6%) and had returned to around the level of past-year drinking in 2011/12 (79.5%). Males (81.8%) were more likely to drink in the past-year than females (75.2%).

For more detail on past-year drinking, click here.

Hazardous drinking

The overall prevalence of, and inequities in, hazardous drinking in the total population has remained unchanged over many years. In 2020/21, around one in every five (or 19.9%) New Zealanders had a hazardous drinking pattern. Males (26.9%) were twice as likely as females (13.2%) to be hazardous drinkers.

The number of hazardous drinkers in the population equated to 824,000 adults aged 15+ years. This figure is likely to be conservative given that population-based surveys typically produce underestimates of alcohol consumption.

Around 1 in every 5 New Zealand adults has a hazardous drinking pattern that places them and/or others at risk of harm

Note: ‘Hazardous drinking’ refers to an established alcohol drinking pattern that carries a risk of harming the drinker’s physical or mental health or having harmful social effects on the drinker or others. It is determined by using the World Health Organisation's AUDIT checklist - a score of 8 or more indicates hazardous drinking.

Whilst 18 to 24 year olds maintain the highest prevalence of drinking in the country (total 34.9%; 41% for men, 28.5% for women), hazardous drinking patterns remain prevalent throughout older age groups in New Zealand, particularly among men.

Inequities in consumption persist - in 2020/21 Māori (33.2%) were more likely to be hazardous drinkers than non-Māori, especially for wāhine Māori (24.8%) who reported a hazardous drinking prevalence that was 1.9 times higher than non-Māori women. Māori men (42%) reported a hazardous drinking prevalence 1.6 times higher than non-Māori men. 

For more detail on hazardous drinking, click here.

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Heavy episodic drinking at least monthly

In 2020/21, 21.4% of adults aged 15+ reported consumption of six more or more drinks on one occasion, at least monthly.

More than 1 in every 5 New Zealand adults report monthly consumption of 6+ drinks in one occasion

Very little overall change was found in the prevalence of heavy episodic drinking at least monthly. Compared to 2019/20, a reduction was observed in heavy episodic drinking at least monthly among Māori women (from 28.7% in 2019/20 to 23.3% in 2020/21) and among New Zealand adults aged 45-54 years (30.0% to 24.6% monthly, and from 19.0% to 14.9% weekly). We need to see future surveys to determine real trends.

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Heavy episodic drinking at least weekly

In 2020/21, 12.1% of New Zealand adults aged 15+ reported consumption of six or more drinks on one occasion, at least weekly.

Around 1 in every 8 New Zealand adults report weekly consumption of 6+ drinks in one occasion

Likewise, very little overall change was found in the prevalence of heavy episodic drinking at least weekly. Compared to 2019/20, a reduction was observed in heavy episodic drinking at least monthly among the age group of  45-54 years (19% in 2019/20 to 14.9% in 2020/21). We need to see future surveys to determine real trends. Again, we need to see future surveys to determine real trends.

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Alcohol use disorders

There is a lack of information on the number of New Zealanders with a diagnosis of alcohol use disorders.

In 2006, it was estimated that just over 4% of the population in their lifetime will experience alcohol addiction and 11% will experience alcohol abuse.

In 2006, it was found that 4.2% of the population reported symptoms of alcohol abuse (2.6%) or dependence (1.3%) in the past year. This equates to over 100,000 New Zealanders.

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Note

Every year (since 2011/12), the Ministry of Health carries out the largest survey into the health and well-being of New Zealanders. It is called the New Zealand Health Survey (NZHS).

The survey is designed to yield an annual sample size of approximately 14,000 adults aged 15 years and over. The data is collected at the respondents’ homes, with the interviewer entering responses directly into a laptop computer and/or asking the respondent to complete a section of the interview by themselves using the laptop computer. The 2020/21 survey, taking place during the pandemic, also used a computer-assisted video interviewing (CAVI) approach for a small sample of participants.

The NZHS 2020/21 represents the sample selected for the period September 2020 to August 2021. For some periods in 2020 and 2021, the survey was suspended in parts of New Zealand that had known community outbreaks of COVID-19. As a result, the sample size for 2020/21 is smaller than usual and the 95% confidence intervals around some estimates are wider than usual. The methodology report is available here.

In 2020/21, the final weighted response rate was 77%. The final sample was 9,709 adults aged 15 years and over.

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Learn more here

What we drink Read More...		Drinking in the past year Read More...		Trends in hazardous drinking Read More...
Drinking trends in adolescents Read More...		Drinking trends in older adults Read More...		Covid-19 and NZ drinking Read More...