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Monday, December 8, 2008
Europeans guzzling beer like they’re at an Animal House frat party, study says
Take a look at this Wall Street Journal story headlined “Europe’s Changing Drinking Habits: More Beer, Less Wine, Few Regrets “.
The story’s lede says it all: “Europeans are supposed to sip wine in sidewalk cafes, not guzzle beer like American college students.”
The story notes that countries such as France and Italy — with their centuries-old traditions of civilized mealtime wine drinking — are seeing a surge of beer consumption among young people. But it also notes that some countries best known for beer-making seem to be embracing wine. Specifically, the story says that:
In Italy, where wine has been made for thousands of years, 88% of respondents over 50 years old said their favorite tipple is wine. But among Italians aged 14 to 29, only 29% prefer wine, while 43% say beer is their favorite drink. Preferences are also changing in France, another historically wine-producing region. Here, 68% of those over 50 say their favorite drink is wine, while only 24% of those aged 14 to 29 gave that response; most French young people (29%) chose beer as their favorite drink.
In historically beer-making countries, including the U.K., Belgium and the Netherlands, drinkers now prefer wine to beer, the survey showed. In Russia, where vodka is supposed to flow like water, 35% of drinkers say their favorite drink is beer, while just as many respondents (30%) say they prefer wine as do hard liquor.
An no, the WSJ didn’t just pull these conclusions out of thin air:
Wall Street Journal asked market-research firm GfK to poll Europeans about their drinking habits. In 13 European Union countries, plus the U.S., Russia, Turkey and Switzerland, GfK asked more than 17,000 people to describe how often they drink, what they drink and how alcohol affects their lives.
The story includes some sobering statistics regarding binge drinking in particular. But of its stereotype-bashing findings of how traditional wine countries are switching to beer, and traditional beer countries are switching to wine, you’ve got to wonder how much of that is the desire by children to do something — anything — different from what their parents do.
That’s a phenomenon that’s difficult to probe in a survey, I would think.
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