Americans’ taste for booze could be slipping, with the percentage of those who say they consume alcohol hitting an 86-year low, according to a recent Gallup poll. Only 54% of U.S. adults polled say they drink alcohol, and those who are drinking are drinking less. It’s part of an ongoing decline in drinking among Americans — and seemingly Germans as well — with the steepest drop among young people.
Why are Americans ditching booze? Malcolm Purinton, an assistant teaching professor of history at Northeastern University who specializes in the history of beer, says there are an array of factors that explain Americans’ current falling out with drinking. Public health officials have mounted a campaign to inform the public about the health risks associated with any amount of alcohol consumption. Purinton says that, along with the more general health and wellness movement, have had a clear impact. But when it comes to the 18- to 34-year-old age range that has backed off alcohol the most, there are other factors at play.
Perhaps the biggest: the aftershock of the COVID-19 pandemic. Alcohol consumption in the U.S. skyrocketed during the pandemic, but for young people who were coming of age during the lockdown, it was a different kind of exposure to alcohol. “In high school, generally people will start experimenting with alcohol, usually in a social atmosphere,” Purinton says. “You didn’t have that social component. What you did have is you had [them] witnessing people drinking more, your parents and people of age drinking a whole lot more.”
