Younger Kiwis Lead The Way With Drinking Behaviour Change

Kiwis aged 18 to 34 years old appear to be more knowledgeable about alcohol than older generations.

Just 34 per cent of those aged 55 years and older could correctly identify a standard drink as ‘a drink containing 10 grams of alcohol’, compared with 61 per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds.

Jude Walter Programme Manager of Alcohol&Me, an education program run by beer, wine and spirits company Lion said, “most adult New Zealanders enjoy a drink and knowing that a healthy liver can only process one standard drink per hour is a key piece of information; there is no way to speed this process up.

“Our research1 shows that while most people believe they have good knowledge about alcohol, when we measure their actual understanding, it falls short. Thirty per cent of people think a standard drink is a single bottle or can of beer or a glass of wine and the knowledge gap is greater among our older generations.

“The number of standard drinks is displayed on the label of all packaged alcoholic beverages. A standard drink is 10 grams of pure alcohol whether you’re drinking beer, wine, spirits or RTDs, but the volume varies by how strong your drink is, which means it is usually not the same as a single can or bottle.”

In New Zealand we are seeing encouraging trends in official data with most of us (83.4%)2 drinking responsibly, and there has been an across-the-board decline in multiple measures of riskier drinking over many years. Education can help improve our drinking culture even further.

“Alcohol&Me provides practical, factual and best-in-class information about alcohol and how it affects your body and mind. Interactive tools include a standard drinks calculator which lets users adjust the alcohol content and liquid volume to learn how many standard drinks are in their glass, and a blood alcohol simulator models the effects of drinking on your body and mind. You can even put your drink pouring accuracy to the test.

“Lion’s Alcohol&Me has been educating Kiwis to make smarter drinking choices since 2013 and participants consistently tell us it’s helped them make positive changes,” said Walter.

1. Alcohol&Me Behaviour Change Research, October 2025. Sample size 1,106 respondents,

2. Annual Update of Key Results 2024/25: New Zealand Health Survey | Ministry of Health NZ

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