QUALITY DECLARATION - SUMMARY
INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT
For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.
RELEVANCE
Data on the total supply of alcohol available for consumption is one indicator of the overall trends in alcohol consumption across the population.
Combined administrative data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS), and direct collection of sales data from wine making enterprises provide information on the quantity of beer, wine and spirits available for consumption. Estimates of dutiable quantity of alcohol (in litres of alcohol) available for consumption of beer, wine and spirits, estimates of the apparent consumption of beer and wine per person aged 15 years and over, in addition to the apparent consumption of alcohol per person aged 15 years and over, are also included.
Estimates for beer and wine also include an estimated component for home production.
Estimates of the quantity of pure alcohol available for consumption in the form of cider are available for 2004-05 onwards. Data for cider have been derived indirectly from ABS National Health Surveys using self-reported information on individuals' consumption of alcohol in conjunction with total apparent consumption of alcohol.
TIMELINESS
Apparent consumption of alcohol estimates are published annually and are released approximately 10 months after the end of the reference period. Revised estimates of per capita consumption are available a year later (after revisions to estimated resident population (ERP) have been made).
ACCURACY
The ABS aims to produce high quality statistics on the apparent consumption of alcohol from import clearance data from the ACBPS, excise data on Australian production from the ATO and from wine making enterprises. Error can arise from inaccuracies in collecting, recording and processing the data. However, the ABS has limited influence over error associated with data collected by external sources.
There have been changes to the excise beer data provided by the ATO for the Apparent Consumption of Alcohol publication since excise tariff reform in July 2006. As a result, the ABS has calculated the quantity and total alcohol content for each of the three beer strengths (low, mid and full) using separate average strength estimates for packaged and tap beer based on 2003-04 to 2005-06 excise data. The total quantity of alcohol available for consumption and apparent consumption per capita for beer may not be directly comparable with data prior to 2005–06.
As a result of excise tariff reform in July 2006, new data items (for beer brewed on commercial premises for non-commercial purposes) which were not separately identified previously were introduced in 2006-07 to the ATO source data. These additional data items have been categorised to low and high beer strengths based on their alcohol contents. To enable time series comparison for the periods 2005–06 to 2006–07, previously published data for these periods have been revised and footnoted.
The total for spirits excludes ready to drink pre-mixed products based on spirits.
Ready to drink pre-mixed products data includes spirit based, wine based and other unspecified based products.
Wine estimates in this edition are consistent with those published in previous editions of this publication. Wine estimates were also revised after revisions to the ERP and footnoted to enable time series comparison.
In the absence of a direct source of information on apparent consumption of cider (for example, excise data as used for beer), the volume of pure alcohol available for consumption in the form of cider has been derived indirectly from ABS National Health Surveys using self-reported information on individuals' consumption of alcohol in conjunction with total apparent consumption of alcohol. This provides an approximation of cider, allowing an assessment of the relative impact of recent increases in cider on the total level of apparent consumption of alcohol in Australia.
In recognition of the inherent inaccuracy involved in estimation, apparent consumption of alcohol estimates in text and accompanying summary tables published by the ABS are rounded. Apparent per capita consumption of alcohol estimates are based on unrounded numbers.
COHERENCE
Annual estimates of apparent consumption of alcohol were published at the national level between 1946–47 and 1998–99 in the publication: Apparent Consumption of Foodstuffs, Australia (cat. no. 4306.0). Although a break in series occurred between 1999–2000 and 2001–02, estimates on the apparent consumption of alcohol have been published separately since 2002–03. However, a comparison of the estimates over time should be undertaken with care.
Data are only available on an annual basis, at the national level. Data are not available by particular demographic characteristics (such as state/territory, region, age, sex or country of birth). As such, it is not possible to account for any effect that changes in the age structure of the population over time may have had on the apparent consumption of alcohol in Australia. Data derived from individuals' self-reported consumption are available from ABS National Health Surveys, and can be disaggregated by a number of demographic variables such as age, sex and geography.
The Explanatory Notes in this edition of the publication contains information pertinent to this particular release which may impact on comparison over time.
INTERPRETABILITY
The Apparent Consumption of Alcohol publication contains detailed Explanatory Notes designed to provide information to users on data sources, terminology and estimation methods used in producing these statistics.
Caution should be exercised when using estimates from this publication in relation to alcohol consumption. Estimates relate to the availability of alcohol rather than a measure of the actual consumption of alcohol by persons aged 15 years and over.
ACCESSIBILITY
Estimates on the apparent consumption of alcohol are only published at the national level. Earlier editions of the publication are available free of charge on the ABS web site <https://www.abs.gov.au/>. From 1946–47 to 1998–99, estimates on apparent consumption of alcohol were published in Apparent Consumption of Foodstuffs, Australia (cat. no. 4306.0). Estimates from 1991–92 are available on the ABS web site.
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