Alcohol consumption may have gone into a permanent decline.
Global production of wine hit its maximum level of 37.5 million metric tons — equivalent to about 50 billion bottles — as far back as 1979, and has since fallen by about 27%.
Decades of advocacy for the claimed health benefits of a daily glass of shiraz have failed to turn that around.
The world is now about 2.6% below the beer consumption it was at in 2016, when 190 million tons were brewed, or roughly half a trillion standard bottles.
The IWSR, a London-based market research firm for the global beverage industry, has witnessed a dramatic fall in per-capita drinking of spirits and other alcoholic drinks in recent years, from 5l of pure alcohol per adult per year in 2013, to 3.9l in 2023. Consumption peaked in 2016 at 25.4 billion litres, from where it’s fallen by about 13%.
Richard Halstead, head of consumer insights at the IWSR says: “You have a generational shift going on between older consumers who drank relatively cheap stuff habitually with meals, and people in their 20s and 30s who are very much event-driven.”
The greater diversity of non-alcoholic alternatives and the increasing availability of marijuana and other soft drugs have had an impact on alcohol consumption.
Covid-19 focused attention on health, and encouraging a style of socialising that’s more about interaction and less focused on just getting drunk.
Africa and Southeast Asia will account for almost all population growth over the rest of this century, which will result in a larger Muslim world.
However, microbreweries, boutique distilleries, and dimly-lit bars have proliferated in recent decades, where people pay more for a cocktail than they would for a square meal.