Who is Drinking Wine in the United States? The Demographic and Socio-Economic Profile of U.S. Wine Consumers (1972-2012)

Abstract

This article presents a historical, empirical, and econometric description of American wine consumers’ demographic and socioeconomic characteristics (1972-2012). By the application of a general demand model that specifies the years of change in the structure of wine consumption in the U.S., it is shown that the evolution of wine consumption in the U.S. between 1972 and 2012 has three distinct stages; a first stage of growing wine consumption, a second stage of decline of wine consumption, and a third stage of recovery and substantial growth of wine consumption. With a model identifying the demographic and socioeconomic profile of the average American wine consumer for those years, it was then discovered that wine used to be a product associated with higher income, higher education level consumers; and it is now described as a product consumed by the younger generation, married people, and women.