Are you a booze hound or an average drinker?

The amount of alcohol available to each adult New Zealander last year was 2.1 standard drinks a day.Statistics NZ figures measure the amount of liquor released to the market rather than the actual amount consumed.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics calls the same data “apparent consumption”.

Statistics NZ does not know how much of the alcohol available is held in stock.

Given the number of people who drink very little or not at all, the figures suggest that some folks are enjoying a good share.

The total volume of alcoholic beverage available for consumption decreased for the year ended December 2011 by 0.3% to 472 million litres.

However the amount made available during the year jumped in the June to September quarters, possibly due to damage in the Canterbury earthquakes.

The volume of pure alcohol available per person aged 15 years and over fell 1% to 9.5 litres. This is equivalent to an average of 2.1 standard drinks per person per day.

Most of the decrease was due to a fall in the volume of wine, down 4.7 million litres (4.6%). This was partly offset by a rise in the volume of spirits and spirit-based drinks available, up 2.7 million litres (3.7%).

The total volume of beer available for consumption rose 446,000 litres (0.1%) to 300 million litres in 2011.

As a proportion of the total volume of alcoholic beverage available for consumption, beer has fallen from 81% in 1996 to 63% in 2011.

Although the amount of consumption per person is difficult to quantify, the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand says 61.6% of drinkers in the past year consumed more than it recommends, at least once.

ALAC recommends a maximum of six standard drinks for males and four for females on a drinking occasion.

ALAC also says

• 85% of New Zealanders aged 16 to 64 drank alcohol in the past year (Ministry of Health, 2009).
• One in eight (12.6%) past-year drinkers consumed more than the recommended guidelines more than once a week during the last year (Ministry of Health, 2009).
• One in six (17.7%) adults (aged 15+) have a potentially hazardous drinking pattern (Ministry of Health, 2008).
• One in ten (10%) adult drinkers reported planning to get drunk on their last drinking occasion (Research New Zealand, 2009).