Canadians bought more beer, wine and spirits last year, but the growth in alcohol sales slowed slightly, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

In total, Canada's beer and liquor stores and agencies sold more than $16.1 billion worth of alcoholic beverages during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2004, up 4.9 per cent from the year before.

However, this rate of growth was slower than the 6.0 per cent increase during the previous fiscal year.

Last year, beer was by far the most popular libation, capturing 50.7 per cent of the country's alcohol trade, while spirits and wine trailed at 24.7 per cent and 24.6 per cent respectively.

While Canadian beer is still dominant in the market, imported beer is gaining ground.

In 2003/04, imported beer sales captured 11 per cent of the Canadian market. In contrast, imports made up 10.2 per cent of Canadian beer sales in the previous fiscal year. A decade ago, imports amounted to less than 3 per cent.

In total, beer and liquor stores and agencies sold almost $8.2 billion worth of beer, up 4.0 per cent from the previous year.

For wine drinkers, red wine was the preferred choice, accounting for 49 per cent of the sales volume, while white brands captured 36 per cent and "unidentified wine" accounted for 15 per cent.

Liquor stores and their agencies sold nearly $4 billion worth of wine, up 7.4 per cent from the previous year.

Profit taken in by provincial and territorial liquor authorities peaked at $4.3 billion, up 7.2 per cent from the previous year, the biggest year-over-year increase in 20 years.

"On average, each Canadian aged 15 and older purchased 107.2 litres of alcoholic beverages, up one litre from the previous fiscal year," Statistics Canada reports. Per capita data is based on the population aged 15 and over.

"Of this total, Canadians bought 86.3 litres of beer, 13.3 litres of wine and 7.6 litres of spirits during the year. Their total per capita purchases of alcoholic beverages amounted to $623.60," the report says.

Provincially speaking

Provincially, British Columbia and Ontario saw the largest increase in net income with 11. 1 per cent and 9.4 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, consumers in Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador led the pack, purchasing more than 115 litres of alcoholic beverages per capita.

In contrast, those in Saskatchewan ranked lowest with 94.4 litres per capita.

In volume, per capita purchases of beer were highest in Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, and lowest in British Columbia.

Newfoundlanders bought the highest per capita volumes in spirits while Quebecers led the way with purchases of wine.

Per capita sales of wine, in volume, were above the national average in only three provinces: Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.

Red wine was the preferred choice in only four provinces: Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.

Among spirits, rum was still most popular in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia; while whisky was the preferred libation for consumers from Ontario to British Columbia.

Statistics Canada warns readers that statistics on alcohol sales by licensed authorities and their agents should not be equated with data on consumption.

"Consumption of alcoholic beverages would include all these sales, plus homemade wine and beer, wine and beer manufactured through brew-on-premises operations, all sales in duty-free shops and any unrecorded transactions," the report says.