According to recent figures released by Roy Morgan in the 12 months to March 2016, 5.7% of Australians 14+ (or just over 1.1 million people) reported consuming at least one soy drink in any given seven-day period, ahead of those who consumed energy drinks (5.6%), sports drinks (5.6%), iced tea (4.7%) and breakfast drinks (4.7%).
“While soy drink consumption shows no sign of challenging regular dairy milk (which is drunk by 44.4% of the population in an average seven days), it does occupy a certain niche in the non-alcoholic beverage market, with slightly more consumers than energy and sports drinks.” Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan Research commented.
Mr. Morris pointed out that consumption of energy- and sports-drinks has slipped since 2012, the proportion of Aussies drinking soy beverages is up over the same period. Admittedly, the increase has been fractional (from 5.3%), but even so, this does represent an extra 115,000 people drinking soy milk at least once per week.

“Many Australians choose to drink soy milk because of the discomfort or adverse reactions dairy products cause them. Consumers interested in health and nutrition are also more inclined to drink soy beverages: for example, people who ‘favour natural medicines and health products’ are more than 50% more likely than the average Aussie to drink soy milk, as are those who ‘look for drinks with added ingredients that are good for my body’.” Mr. Morris commented.
Mr. Morris broke it down amongst the states and explained that ACT residents lead the country for soy drink consumption, with 9.3% drinking it in an average seven days; ahead of Melburnians (8.3%) and Sydneysiders (6.0%). Lagging behind the other capital cities is Hobart, where only 3.8% of residents drink soy beverages. Overall, capital-city dwellers (6.3%) are more likely than country residents (4.6%) to opt for soy drinks.
Mr. Morris also explained that consumption of soy drinks is well above average among people who ‘avoid dairy foods wherever possible’ (16.4%) as well as those for who say ‘Milk/Dairy products do not agree with me’ (15.4%). It is also elevated (13.5%) among people who report that ‘The food I eat is all, or almost all, vegetarian.’
Morris went on to say that the figures show that dairy and soy milk consumption are not as mutually exclusive as one might think. Almost one-third (31.3%) of Australians who consume soy drinks in an average seven days also drink regular fresh white milk in that time. Even among soy-drinkers who have issues with dairy, there is a surprising rate of dairy-milk consumption. Some 13.4% of soy-drinkers who ‘avoid dairy foods wherever possible,’ and 15.8% of those who say that ‘milk/dairy products don’t agree’ with them, drink regular milk as well as soy.