Thursday, 12 August 2010

Changes in UK beer and wine consumption since 1961

Joseph Takagi alerts us to these charts over at WolframAlpha:



Can you guess which one is for wine and which one is for beer?

My latest blogpost: Changes in UK beer and wine consumption since 1961Tweet this! Posted by Mark Wadsworth at 19:13

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16 comments:

manwiddicombe said...

I'll take a guess that the beer is the first graph and wine the second.

12 August 2010 at 19:22
marksany said...

Since i'm drinking a lot more wine than i used to, wine is the second graph. I can't tell what the first graph is showing because it doesn't have a zero on the y axis aarrgghhh!

I wonder what the alcovep graph looks like?

12 August 2010 at 19:37
Curmudgeon said...

Not exactly difficult, that one. But an interesting comparison between your beer graph and this table showing on-trade consumption between 1997 and 2010.

On-trade consumption is 40% down since 1997, and over 60% down since its peak in 1979. But your graph seems to indicate that most of the slack has been taken up by increased off-trade sales.

12 August 2010 at 19:38
marksany said...

Alcovep?

I meant alcopop, bloody iPad smell chucker.

12 August 2010 at 19:40
Anoneumouse said...

Where is the 'home brew' graph.

Peapod wine mmmmmm

12 August 2010 at 20:15
Anonymous said...

I'me doing my bit to stuff the pubs and
UK consumption of beer.

Up till June 2007 I had averaged
about 35 pints a week.

Now 2 (Tonight)and I/lle make them last


www.shutthepubs.gov.uk

12 August 2010 at 20:42
dearieme said...

Who on earth would measure consumption of liquids in short tons?

12 August 2010 at 21:08
Mark Wadsworth said...

MW, the quantities are a giveaway, but even without them that would be the only sensible conclusion.

MA, yes it does, it's just truncated.

C, the most interesting thing in your chart is the accelerated decline since 1/7/07, which we all knew to be true, but on planet Bansturbation is either denied or seen as A Good Thing (or both).

D, short people I suppose.

12 August 2010 at 21:45
James Higham said...

Beer down - I didn't look at your comment.

12 August 2010 at 21:47
Steven_L said...

Watch the 50p minimum unit reverse that!

12 August 2010 at 23:23
Curmudgeon said...

"the most interesting thing in your chart is the accelerated decline since 1/7/07, which we all knew to be true, but on planet Bansturbation is either denied or seen as A Good Thing (or both)"

Indeed, and as I said, the single biggest fall over the whole 13 years was 10.6% between the last quarter (Apr-Jun 2007) before the smoking ban came into effect, and the corresponding quarter a year later. And that was before the recession really hit.

12 August 2010 at 23:29
Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, well spotted. I knew wine consumption had gone up but didn't realise how much beer had shot up and drifted down again.

SL, surely most beer costs nearly 50p per unit anyway? Ah well, I live in the South East, the quick trip to Calais is becoming ever more attractive...

C, yeah, but facts and logic don't stand a chance against Righteousness.

12 August 2010 at 23:36
Onus Probandy said...

Erm -- don't these need a per-adult-age-capita normalisation before they tell us anything about consumption?

13 August 2010 at 11:43
Mark Wadsworth said...

OP, UK population up by twenty per cent since 1961, not enough to make the two charts look materially different (although it would highlight the decline in beer consumption).

13 August 2010 at 12:43
Curmudgeon said...

"surely most beer costs nearly 50p per unit anyway?"

Around here at least, it's not difficult to get 4x500 ml cans of 5% lager (Grolsch, Holsten, Oranjeboom etc) for £3.99, which is 40p a unit. Supermarket big-pack multibuys can be much less.

And the supermarkets still sell 3 litre PET bottles of own-brand 5.3% cider for £2.99, which is only 19p/unit.

13 August 2010 at 16:24
Mark Wadsworth said...

C, ignoring cider, for the time being, on which UK duty is abnormally low.

13 August 2010 at 19:17

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