| Gender |
- Men tend to begin drinking younger, report more daily & weekly drinking, and are more likely to have ever consumed alcohol.
- Men are more likely than women to drink more than two drinks on a drinking day or drink more than four in a single session.
- While women drink less, they also appear to be reducing their drinking at a lower rate than men.
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| Age |
- Older adults are more likely to report daily drinking and those aged 70+ stand out, with 13.6% reporting daily drinking.
- Younger adults (18-24) are more likely to drink more than 4 drinks per session and are more likely to report extreme drinking sessions (11 or more drinks per session).
- There has been a significant reduction in the proportion of people who drink in the past decade, though older adults have remained relatively consistent.
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| Geographic location |
- All States and Territories have seen a reduction in daily drinking from 2001 to 2016, but only a significant reduction in the proportion of daily drinking in the Australian Capital Territory (6.6% to 3.6%).
- The Northern Territory had the highest proportion of people aged 15 years or older who drink daily (7.3%).
- Australians who live in more remote areas report a greater proportion of monthly drinking sessions where they consume 4 or more drinks (36.7% vs. 24.2%), yearly extreme drinking sessions (24.6% vs. 14.4%), and at least monthly extreme drinking sessions (15.0% vs. 6.3%).
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| Socioeconomic position |
- Those living in more advantaged conditions (5th quartile) compared to least advantaged (1st quartile), are less likely to abstain (18.2% vs. 31.8%) and are more likely to drink 4 or more drinks in a single session monthly (12.5% vs. 9.0%) or yearly (25.9% vs. 23.5%).
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| Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples |
- The overall proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who drink alcohol (69%) is smaller than in the general population (77%).
- However, those who do drink tend to drink in larger and more harmful quantities. Specifically, 18.8% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples report consuming 11 or more standard drinks in a month, which is greater than non-Indigenous people (6.8%).
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| Sexuality and gender diverse peoples |
- Since 2010, those who identify as sexuality and gender diverse are more likely to drink (85.6% vs. 79.7%), drink 4 or more drinks on a drinking day (70.3% vs. 50.1%) and report an extreme drinking session in the past year (27.8% vs. 15.3%).
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| Culturally and linguistically diverse peoples |
- While consumption varies among culturally and linguistically diverse peoples, those whose main language at home was a language other than English were more likely to not drink and were less likely to drink at risky levels or have an extreme drinking session.
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