Young people enjoy a good night in

Staying in is the new going out for young people when it comes to having a few drinks.

According to the latest research from Mintel, 55% of 18 to 24-year-olds now drink at home for a special occasion compared to just 41% of overall UK in-home drinkers. And 21% of those young consumers claim to be entertaining more at home than ever before.

Today, it appears that younger drinkers no longer equate home to cheap and cheerful drinking. Mintel found that the average amount spent on a bottle of wine for drinking at home was £6.01, but that for 18 to 24-year-olds this rose to £8.35. Mintel says this partly reflects an indulgent attitude to in-home drinking as well as being revealing about their lack of knowledge about wine.

“Younger drinkers are changing” said Mintel’s senior drinks analyst Jonny Forsyth. “While pre-recession it was all about drinking out of home and the austerity of the recession forced them back indoors to make savings, post recession younger drinkers are taking the going out attitude into the home.

“This means they’re hosting celebrations and events in home, and splashing out on higher-end alcohol. Attitudes have shifted as they’ve been having more big nights at home, initially because they were forced to due to economic pressures – but now they’ve found that it has its advantages over going out. It appears, that for younger consumers, staying in really is the new going out.”

Estimated to reach £15.6bn in 2011, the in-home drinking market has grown by 20% since 2006, although in real value terms, the market has seen a fall of 0.5%.

Between 2006 and 2010 penetration of in-home drinking remained static despite overall drinking being in decline, as people drank more at home where drinking was much cheaper. However, says Mintel, between 2009 and 2010, this changed, with in-home drinking declining from 75.4% in 2009 to 71.9% in 2010.

Price remains the overriding reason for consumers to drink at home, and when we do white wine tops the list, followed closely by red wine, lager, rose wine and white spirits.

Volume sales of rose and white wine are on the up, while sales of red are declining.