Roy Morgan Research has revealed the nation’s most popular snacks based on a poll of more than 16,800 people aged 14 and over. According to the results, Australians prefer savory snacks to sweet, with potato chips, nuts and crackers trumping lollies, chocolate and even ice cream.
Potato chips picture from Shutterstock
According to Roy Morgan’s research, 41 per cent of Aussies snack on potato chips at least once per week: the biggest result in the poll. This actually increases to 58 per cent when combined with corn chips, which were represented as a separate snack choice.
Surprisingly, the second most popular snack was nuts (37 per cent), followed by savoury biscuits/crackers (32 per cent) and ice cream from a tub (28 per cent.) The least popular snack choice was “natural” at 16 per cent and health/muesli/fruit bars (17 per cent.)
The full results can be viewed in the table below (click to enlarge):
The study found that women were more likely to opt for healthy snacks than men. For example, 32 per cent of female respondents ate natural/plain yoghurt at least once per week, compared to 20 per cent of men.
Men were also found to be less concerned than women about the nutritional value in snacks such as potato chips (44% vs 38%). Ice cream, meanwhile, is enjoyed by both genders almost equally.
The popularity of each snack also varies between different age groups: 60 per cent of teenagers aged 14-17 snack on potato chips at least once per week. By contrast, just 23 per cent of the 65+ demographic admitted to doing the same. Elderly people were much more likely to snack on nuts and savoury biscuits than any other age group.
In all, more than 60 per cent of those polled claimed they prefer to eat healthy snacks and actively restrict how much fattening foods they eat. This seems to contradict the above table, but bear in mind that respondents were asked which snacks they ate in an average seven-day period: one bag of potato chips per week isn’t that unhealthy.
Comments
4 responses to “These Are The Snack Foods Australians Are Hooked On”
Except that at least some (if not most) of the people who eat chips probably also eat corn chips, so it makes no sense to just add the numbers together.
In other news, did you know that 110% of people snack on potato chips, nuts, and savoury biscuits/crackers at least once per week?
Chris Jager needs to learn him some statistics
It’s a fair cop, although the total would be higher if potato chips and corn chips were combined into one category.
Do you know that for sure?
It is entirely possible that there was nobody in the survey who regularly consumed corn chips who did not also regularly consume potato chips, meaning that the the total would not change if they were grouped into one category.