What is a Standard Drink?

Description

It is important to understand what a standard drink is so that when you are drinking you can manage how much alcohol you consume. This can help you stick to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines.

In Australia, a standard drink is any drink containing 10 grams of alcohol, regardless of container size or alcohol type (e.g beer, wine, spirit).

A standard drink is a unit of measurement. In the same way one metre measures a particular distance travelled, one standard drink measures a particular amount of alcohol consumed.

Alcoholic beverages are sold and served in many different sizes. Different types of alcoholic-drinks contain different amounts of alcohol, and glass sizes and are often not the same between venues. This can make it difficult to know how many standard drinks are in each drink you consume. Using standard drinks to measure your alcohol consumption is more accurate than counting the number of drinks you have had.

Use these images to see how many standard drinks are in each type of beverage.

One standard drink is equal to approximately:
285 mL of full strength beer (4.8% alc. vol)
375mL of mid strength beer (3.5% alc.vol)
425 mL of low strength beer (2.7% alc. vol)
100 mL of wine (red - 13% alc. vol, and white – 11.5% alc. vol)
100 mL of champagne (12% alc. vol) 3
30 mL of spirits (40% alc. vol)
275 mL bottle of ready-to-drink beverage (5% alcohol content)

Australian food labelling law requires all packaged alcohol to include the number of standard drinks on its label. Counting your standard drinks can help you stay within the NHRMC Guidelines.

GUIDELINE 1
For healthy men and women, drinking no more than two standard drinks on any day reduces the lifetime risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury.

GUIDELINE 2
For healthy men and women, drinking no more than four standard drinks on a single occasion reduces the risk of alcohol-related injury arising from that occasion.