Non-Mormons, tourists fuel rising Utah liquor sales

SALT LAKE CITY — In Mormon dominated Utah where alcohol is frowned upon, liquor sales keep climbing each year. State residents bought nearly $428 million in alcohol last year to set another record, continuing a two-decade trend likely fueled by a steady influx of new out-of-state residents and a thriving tourism sector.

Alcohol sales at Utah restaurants, bars and 45 state-controlled liquor stores rose 5 percent last fiscal year, shows an annual report released this month from Utah’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Sales have increased each year since 1996, the first year state data is available. Sales have increased 40 percent just in the last six years.

Demographers say a strong economy has drawn non-Mormons to the state over the last 25 years for jobs. Combine that with flourishing tourism driven by the state’s ski areas and red-rock national parks and you have more people in Utah who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which instructs members to avoid drinking alcohol.

“It is part of the changing demographics of the state,” said Terry Wood, spokesman of Utah’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. “This demographic is more likely to purchase alcohol.”

Those who drink in Utah are consuming more — the 2.94 average gallons of alcohol consumed per capita was up 3 percent from the year before. It was the 11th year the measure increased, agency figures show.

The state was among the lowest in the US in that measure as of 2015, the most up-to-date comparable data available, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.