Yum! Steaks or Burgers? Many Americans Fire up the Grill All Year Round

July is National Grilling Month and as a new Harris Poll of 2,454 U.S. adults surveyed online between June 9 and 16, 2008 by Harris Interactive^® shows, Americans like to grill and they do it all year round. Specifically:

• Half of Americans (50%) say they grill at least a few times a month with one-quarter (23%) barbequing at least once a week. Just one in six (14%) say they never grill or barbeque outdoors;
• Over half (57%) of grillers do so in the summer, two in five (40%) grill in the Spring and one-third (33%) grill in the Fall.
• Two in five (39%) grillers say season doesn’t matter and they grill all year long;

Looking at it by age and region:

• Baby Boomers (those aged 44-62) and Gen Xers (those aged 32-43) are grillers. Three in five Boomers (60%) and Gen Xers (59%) grill at least a few times a month compared to just one-third (35%) of Matures (those 63 and older) and two in five (41%) Echo Boomers (those aged 18-31);
• Half of Baby Boomers who grill (49%) say they do so all year long;
• Three-quarters (74%) of this Echo Boomers who grill at least a few times a year do so in the summer;
• Regionally, Easterners (53%) and Midwesterners (52%) are more likely to grill at least a few times a month, especially compared to Westerners (47%).

Certain foods just taste better on the grill and people have their favorite barbeque:

• Beef comes out on top – over half (56%) say steak is one of their two favorite foods prepared on a BBQ, followed by just under half (47%) saying hamburgers. Two in five (38%) say chicken, followed by hot dogs (16%), sausage (12%), vegetables (10%) and fish (6%) with 7 percent saying other;
• Men and women, not surprisingly, have some differences. Men are more likely to like sausage (15% versus 8%) and steaks (59% versus 54%) while women are more partial to chicken (42% versus 34%) and vegetables (14% versus 6%);
• There are also partisan differences. Almost two-thirds (63%) of Republicans say steak is one of their favorites compared to half (53%) of Democrats, while Republicans are also more likely to choose hamburgers (54% versus 46%). Democrats are more likely to choose chicken (40% versus 34%) and vegetables (11% versus 5%).

"On average throughout the year, how often would you say you barbeque or use a grill to cook outdoors?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

"When do you typically grill outdoors?"

Base: Grill at least a few times a year

Note: Multiple responses accepted

"When you think of the following food prepared on a barbeque, which two would you say are your favorites?"

Base: All adults

Note: Up to 2 responses allowed

Note: * indicates less than 0.5%

This Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between June 9 and 16, 2008, among 2,454 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

J34158

Q805, 810, 815