The definition of a heavy drinker is someone who has consumed 22+ glasses of alcohol in the past 7 days, which is an average of more than 3 glasses per day. Over three quarters of these heavy drinkers are male (approximately 1.4 million) and only one quarter (approximately 400,000) are female.

The types of alcohol they drink is different for Men and Women – for males 60% of their total volume comes from Beer (compared to 15% for women), whereas for women, 42% of their volume is from Wine (compared to 18% for males).  Heavy drinkers regardless of their gender are also much more likely to smoke cigarettes than the population – 39% of male heavy drinkers smoke compared with 23% of the total male adult population; and 45% of female heavy drinkers smoke tobacco in some form whereas only 20% of the female adult population smokes.

Heavy drinkers are also more likely to be employed than the adult population – 77% for males and 67% for women when compared with 62% for the 18+ population. It is interesting to note that heavy drinkers are also equally represented across all of the socio economic groups.


Smoking Incidence and Heavy Drinkers


Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia): June 2009 – May 2010. Australians aged 18+. Sample: n=49,630.


Trish Kelliher, Account Director, Roy Morgan Research, says:

“There has been some debate in the public arena around Australia having a problem drinking culture. These numbers show that the vast majority of Australians have a responsible relationship with alcohol. However the fact that there are close to 1.8 million Australians consuming on average more than 3 glasses a day signals that there is still some way to go in getting the message through about responsible consumption.

“What is striking is that women who are heavy drinkers are more than twice as likely to smoke as the total female adult population. That nearly half of female heavy drinkers smoke has significant public health implications.

“These numbers also highlight that heavy alcohol consumption does co-exist with other risk-taking behaviours, such as smoking. This poses a challenge for policy makers who need to take the overall risk profile of the target group into consideration when addressing health damaging behaviour.”


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