NZ Health Survey Shows We Are Drinking Less And Drinking Better With The Move To Moderation

The just released New Zealand annual Health Survey assessment of our health and wellbeing shows continued positive change in our drinking behaviour.

“We are seeing a growing shift towards moderate drinking and healthy lifestyles, as our hazardous drinking and alcohol consumption continues to decline”, said NZABC Executive Director Virginia Nicholls.

Five out of six New Zealanders (83.4%) drink beer, wine and spirits responsibly, and there has been an across-the-board decline in different measures of riskier drinking as compared to 2016/17.

We are seeing reductions in hazardous drinking, heavy episodic drinking or binge drinking both weekly and monthly. The rate of hazardous drinking in adults has consistently declined from 21.3% in 2020 to 16.6% this year, a reduction of 22%.

Hazardous drinking among women has declined, dropping from 13.8% in 2020 to 11.5% this year - a 16.6% reduction.

Men’s hazardous drinking remains high, but encouraging progress has been made. This has fallen from 28.9% in 2020 to 21.9% this year, representing a 24% reduction.

More people are choosing not to drink with three quarters of Kiwis currently drinking alcohol (74.9%) compared with 79.6% when the survey began.

Although the legal age for purchasing alcohol in NZ is 18 years old, 49% of those aged 15-17 years drank alcohol in the past year versus 60.3% in 2011/12, a reduction of 23%.

This lines up with the NZ Youth 2000 survey which shows an increasing proportion of secondary school students are choosing not to drink. The proportion of secondary students who have never drunk alcohol increased markedly from 26% in 2007, to 45% in 2019.

While many New Zealand adults choose to drink full strength beer, wine and spirits more responsibly, we are also seeing the rise of low and no alcohol drinks. Independent Curia market research found that 55% of respondents said they drank low-alcohol beverages in the past year (up from 40% in 2020). The most common reasons are because they were driving, tracking beverage consumption, for health and wellbeing reasons and for a lower calorie drink

“There are some encouraging trends, however we still have a way to go,” said Virginia.

About the New Zealand Alcohol Beverages Council

The NZ Alcohol Beverages Council is a pan-industry group that comments publicly on matters relating to the beer, wine, spirits and beverage industry. It focuses on supporting responsible alcohol consumption and wants to see a fair and balanced debate on alcohol regulation in New Zealand.

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