Gen Z and millennials are driving a great American drinking decline, Gallup poll

https://fortune.com/2025/08/13/gen-z-drinking-alcohol-attitudes-gallup-survey/

by randycupertino • 8 months ago

17 11 8 months ago

I heard an interview on NPR with a Napa CA winery owner and she was absolutely railing on about the "this new prohibition trend" that was hurting her business. She kept calling it the "Gen Z Prohibition Movement" and overall was pretty rude about it. It was hard to feel sorry for her.

anovikov• 8 months ago

They aren't not drinking because of health risks. Obesity rates among them are higher than among X-ers in their age. They aren't drinking because drinking is a social thing and they are asocial and stuck at home glued to their screens.

trehalose• 8 months ago

Do you think cost might be a factor? The economy isn't great right now. Prices are high. Alcohol is an unnecessary expense that people can cut out to save money (and it's more expensive at bars and restaurants where people can escape their homes to).

ReptileMan• 8 months ago

You could create a home party with really good cocktails for sub 100EUR total cost. And home parties are actually the best ways to socialize and meet new people.

Clear Ice DIY - free. 1 lt prebatched Negroni - 15EUR 1 lt prebatched Old fashioned - probably around 20 1 lt Mohito/Smash families - again around 15-20 1-2 bottles of not terrible prosecco - 10EUR each (good thing about Europe - a lot of the PDO wine products are acceptable quality and quite cheap) Syrups - if you use essential oils for flavoring - you could get down to 2 for liter of cordial concentrate. By using some tricks you can stretch a couple of citruses to make a lot of juice. If you home carbonate your water - it is penny on the liter - so you can spritz the cocktails to make them lighter.

You can legitimately get 15 people quite tipsy for 5-6 euro per person.

Booze in USA is not terribly more expensive - and some stuff is even cheaper so I guess a chatgpt created bar program for home drinking could get into this budget too.

kuhsaft• 8 months ago

They aren't drinking because drinking is a social thing

being social != drinking. likewise, drinking != being social

You can still be social and not drink alcohol. You can drink alcohol and not be social.

Pretty much every establishment that serves alcohol nowadays also serves some non-alcoholic alternative. Every major alcohol brand has a non-alcoholic version of their beverage, i.e. Budweiser, Coors, Busch, Heineken, Guinness.

xqcgrek2• 8 months ago

Alcohol is a poison and a Group 1 carcinogen. There is no minimum safe dose.

skx0012• 8 months ago

This is a broad trend among Gen-Z. Being healthy is the new flex. A great development in my opinion. I have yet to meet one person who gave up alcohol and regretted it.

jppope• 8 months ago

One of the things that bothers me about this (though indirect), which I say every time these articles are posted (about alcohol and health) is that we are working with an incomplete data set. It is absolutely true that the physical effects of any alcohol use are bad for your health, the problem is that we have no way to know if the social/psychological effects of moderate drinking outweigh the negatives... there has never been a longitudinal study on the matter, which is very frustrating.

We know that people who meet with their friends once a week for dinner are happier and have better health outcomes. We know that being married increases your lifespan. What story does alcohol with its deep cultural influence and use in social settings play in health outcomes - we don't know. We just know that alcohol is a poison, a poison that humans as a species have adapted to be able to consume and process better than other animals.

Speaking without any evidence whatsoever to back it up, I could totally imagine bimodal health impacts from alcohol where one group increases their health outcomes through moderate drinking as a social lubricant decreasing stress, increasing community, increasing the likelihood of marriage, and another group increases stress, isolation, and negative health impacts through excessive drinking.

Either way it would go, I would like real, empirical, LONGITUDINAL data to direct me on how to view alcohol, as opposed to the current state of things.

grimblee• 8 months ago

I've stopped drinking 1y and half ago and will never go back on it, I save money, health and time.

I may not be going out as much as before, but I've started kickboxing instead and it turns out that people who are serious about sports do not drink, so going to the club is my new, non-alcoholic, socializing.

skx0012• 8 months ago

This comment clearly expands the point I made in my original comment above. When I say nobody regrets giving up alcohol, I don't just mean people addicted.

Even casual drinkers I know are so happy after giving up. They are more happy, sleep better, feel better etc.

The "socializing" people used to do with drinking, they are now replacing it by joining gyms, running marathons/ironmans and learning martial arts.

This is great!

Gen Z and millennials are driving a great American drinking decline, Gallup poll

Related Stories