The Week, January 2026
What do the numbers show?
That the U.S. is losing its taste for the hard stuff. In a recent Gallup survey, 54% of American adults said they consumed alcohol, the lowest level since the pollster began tracking drinking behavior in 1939. The share of drinkers has dropped steadily and sharply since 2022, when 67% admitted they at least occasionally imbibed beer, wine, or spirits. And those that do still drink are knocking back far less: Pure alcohol consumption per person fell 3% in 2024, the biggest drop since the Prohibition era a century ago, according to the research firm Bernstein. While Gen Z often grabs headlines for its “sober curious” lifestyle—only 50% of Americans ages 18 to 34 say they drink—drinking is down across all generations, with the share of active drinkers among 35-to-54- year-olds dropping 10 percentage points since 2023 to 56%, and 5 points among those 55 and over, also to 56%. And those numbers could keep falling: 40% of adults told pollster Ipsos that their New Year’s resolution for 2026 was to drink less alcohol.
