Australia's love affair with booze is waning with more than half of us now in favour of alcohol tax rises and bans on advertising during sport.

Support for regulation has grown even though, as a nation, we haven't really changed our drinking habits in the past five years. Well, there is a slight uptick in the percentage of people who drink to get drunk to 37 per cent, which equates to about 4 million drinkers.

The results of the annual Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education survey of 1800 Australians have been welcomed by public health advocates, who say Australians are fed up with problem drinking.

Older Australians made up the majority of the 24 per cent who drink at least three days a week. Almost two in five Australians over 50 drink at least three times in a week, compared with 18-24-year-olds (5 per cent). But when young drinkers do get on the sauce, they are more likely to drink six of more drinks on a typical night out.