More Australians putting shrimps on the barbie than ever before

12-Apr-2016 - Last updated on 13-Apr-2016 at 09:06 GMT

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In Australia, the so-called barbecue capital of the world, almost two thirds of the population own a barbie—a figure that grows to three-quarters in country South Australia, according to new market research.

The Festival State is just ahead of the nation’s capital, where 73.5% of households have an outdoor hot plate, with Western Australia coming in third at 71.2%.

Household barbecue ownership in Australia- country vs capital city — Household barbecue ownership in Australia: country vs capital city

While barbecue ownership tends to be above average in rural households, those in capital-cities hover slightly below average, with Melbourne having the lowest rate of barbecue ownership at 60.1%.

In 2015, 5.8m Australian households owned a barbecue, translating to 63.7% of the country, an increase of some 400,000 households since 2011.

Last year alone, 347,000 Australian households reported buying a new barbecue, and 249,000 households said they intended to buy one at some point in the following year.

“Along with beer, beaches and sport, the barbecue is central to classic—and, admittedly, clichéd—notions of Australian identity, reaching its zenith with Paul Hogan’s famously ‘ocker’ TV advertisement urging the world to put another shrimp on the barbie,” said Andrew Price of Roy Morgan Research, which carried out the study.

“So the fact that barbecue ownership is so widespread among Aussie households is no surprise. Nor is the fact that Australian-born Aussies are 50% more likely than their Asian-born counterparts to live in a household with a barbecue in it.”