Wholesalers registered to trade alcohol in the Northern Territory provide the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade with data on the volume of alcohol supplied to licensed retailers by product type (cask wine, bottled wine, fortified wine, cider, standard spirits, pre-mixed spirits, full strength beer, mid strength beer and low strength beer).
The volume of each product supplied in the Northern Territory is multiplied by its estimated fraction of alcohol content so that the amount of pure alcohol associated with each product type can be compared. The figures presented in this document represent the wholesale supply in litres of Pure Alcohol Content (PAC). Wholesale PAC supply statistics are presented for the Northern Territory as a whole; each of the major urban centres (Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Nhulunbuy) and for the Northern Territory Balance.
An estimate of the apparent per capita consumption of alcohol in the Northern Territory is determined by dividing the total alcohol supplied in the Northern Territory by an estimate of the population likely to be drinking. National statistics include those people aged 15 years and above as the likely drinking population. As the Northern Territory is a major centre for tourism, the total population likely to be drinking is derived by adding the estimates of the Northern Territory interstate and international tourist numbers to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ estimates of the Northern Territory population aged 15 years and over. Apparent consumption can only be reliably calculated for the whole of the Northern Territory as population estimates are considered unreliable at lower geographic levels.
Where population changes are cited for regional areas, they are based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ total estimated drinking age residential population for those regions.
