Americans Aren't Drinking Anymore
- Kevin Lankes
- Aug 19
- 6 min read
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FXLiwZpR_kI
It seems like Americans just aren’t drinking anymore. A recent Gallup poll found that the percentage of Americans who drink alcohol is at a historic low of just 54%. I mean, it’s hot out there, are you guys not thirsty? You want an ice-cold adult beverage? Frozen margarita? With a little umbrella in it? No?
Gallup has tracked the drinking habits of Americans since 1939, and the numbers have been on a downward trend since 1997. They spiked in the late 1970s, which was peak alcoholism for America. At that point, when my parents were in college, they joined in with a total of 71% of Americans who reported drinking alcohol.
The sober life is split among gender lines with more women than men deciding to forego alcohol these days. It’s also split along racial lines, too. More white people have decided not to drink so that percentage is down, but to be fair, looking at the overall data we can see that white people actually drank more than people of color over the life of this survey. I’m happy to say that my white people friends are now drinking 11% less, and that’s probably going to do some good for the world. It’s also split along age lines, too, with younger people in gen z and some millennials deciding that drinking alcohol just isn’t what the cool kids do anymore.
The decline in drinking coincides with shifting attitudes toward alcohol. For the first time ever, a majority of Americans believe that even moderate drinking is bad for your health. Random aside, and I guess this is a pet peeve of mine but I absolutely hate in these surveys when they say things like “majority of Americans believe that drinking is bad,” instead of what they should say, which is “majority of Americans now agree with the scientific data that drinking is bad.” Like, stop reporting what random people think as if it matters, report on whether or not their opinions match the data. Anyway.
Yes, the science now says that even moderate consumption of alcohol, just one to two drinks a day, is bad for human health. In the past, there were articles everywhere that went into the health benefits of drinking, especially red wine. It was always red wine we were clinging to in order to justify our hangovers. But now all of that is lost. Researchers have found certain flaws in past studies, such as not accounting for genetic factors or healthy behaviors like diet and exercise, and I guess people didn’t really study the population that didn’t drink at all, and we just always lumped in moderate drinking thinking it would have the same health outcomes. But the newer science is very conclusive. A wealth of new research has concluded that drinking any amount is simply bad for you. And 53% of Americans now understand that, which is way up from the 22% of Americans who knew that in the year 2005.
You might be wondering why younger people aren’t drinking as much anymore. And what’s interesting there is that there’s a whole shifting culture when it comes to situations involving drinking. For one thing, marijuana is readily available now. About 80% of people live in a county with at least one dispensary. And it’s legal in half of all states, and decriminalized in others, so it’s more accessible than ever. Of course, there’s no hard data that says people are simply moving from drinking to smoking, but it’s one possible explanation among many.
Another point in the cultural shift is the decline of the happy hour. Younger people around gen Z age will tell you that happy hour is for old people. It’s something boomers do. Younger people these days are downright scandalized by the idea of going out and getting drunk with colleagues. The possibility of something improper happening is the first thing you might think, I guess, a possible liability, especially if coworkers or even university students were to drink together, but that doesn’t appear to be the reason. Universities still sponsor types of happy hour events. But these kind of things just don’t appeal to younger people now.
A growing anti-work sentiment might be a contributing factor. Because only half of American workers report feeling satisfied with their job. The rising need for things like actual purpose and fulfillment in life is shifting a lot of things around for company culture in America. A quote from the Slate article linked below really sums up the game for me, and it goes like this: “We give our employers enough as it is: The 40 hours a week they pay us for, and often more. Why would you drink with co-workers when you could hang out with your friends or family, anyway?” Yeah, why indeed?
Some assumptions point directly at the COVID lockdowns as a probable cause of the growing preference for work-life balance. Some data goes further than that, suggesting that after lockdowns, an increase in social awkwardness is taking hold. And there is some scattered research out there highlighting various populations and the idea that COVID may have interrupted our social time and even social ability. You can find my sources for that, along with all sources for this video, down in the didgeridoo, as always.
There’s a whole lot to unpack there, including the American work ethic and unhealthy compulsion for productivity and 1950s ideals. But we have to find out how this lack of drinking is affecting the alcohol industry.
Because last I heard, whiskey was having a gigantic renaissance. Since a good amount of varieties like scotch and others need to be aged to reach their flavor profiles, sometimes for twenty years or more, making sure you have enough product available that far in the future is a real problem. And people were buying it up faster than it could be made, so they fixed that by offering more blends, which they could make right away. But they also started ramping up production of barrel-aged whiskies, too. So if that bubble has burst, and people are drinking less in general, are they in trouble? Is everyone who makes alcohol in trouble? And yes, I had a major whiskey nerd phase. I even got to host a whiskey tasting and invite a really cool novelist I like, and I got paid for it.
What’s happening is that alcohol companies are shifting their product portfolios to cater to the current trends. Lots of non-alcoholic drinks are hitting the marketplace now. Not only is there now more than just one awful alcohol-free beer to choose from, there are now non-alcoholic spirits, too. I’m not familiar with any having existed before but you can correct me on that in the comments. I’m a little skeptical of this stuff personally because I don’t know how well it’s going to hold up, and honestly, part of the point of drinking is the drunkenness, so if that’s out of the equation, I feel like I would just drink something else. I don’t know that I would go out of my way to buy non-alcoholic products, but it seems like people are. And I might just not be aware of the thing for me yet. Because big beer companies are offering more things than ever, like canned non-alcoholic cocktails and even zero-sugar energy drinks. So the portfolio of non-alcoholic drinks from alcohol companies is really growing fast. The market segment is expected to grow by $4 billion by 2028. Statista says that revenue is expected to grow annually by 2.3%. Though in 2026, they earmark growth at exactly 0%.
As far as spirits go, things like whiskey, my golden ambrosia, or tequila, the market crashed a bit following the pandemic but during the pandemic all alcohol sales hit a little bump, and the spirits market is mostly retaining that bump while other drinks are experiencing falling numbers. Spirits sales are expecting to rise steadily in the next few years. So it’s possible that all those whiskey barrels currently aging in dark dungeons of deliciousness could be safe. One theory about why this is true is that Americans are drinking less overall, but saving for more premium purchases like more expensive bottles of spirits. If you want to buy me an expensive bottle of Pappy, I’ll take the 15-year, because it’s generally considered to be the best. I’m also a huge fan of peated scotch, and there are even some peated Irish whiskies that are super scrumptious, so I’d take one of those.
Let me know in the comments what your new drinking habits are, and if there’s been a shift in your life around drinking, and why. Is it for health reasons, you don’t want to spend the money, or something else? And keep in mind, the CDC says that if you don’t drink now, don’t start for any reason. Even if your house is filling up with tequila and chugging that sweet nectar down is the only way to save your family, the CDC says no. No!
Cheers for now. I’ll see you in the next video. Until then, as always, let’s do some f*cking good in our own little corners of the world.
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