Why young Americans are turning away from alcohol

It’s a question vexing booze boardrooms: is the younger generation turning away from alcohol? If so, is it a permanent trend or will “normal” patterns eventually re-establish themselves? The post Why young Americans are turning away from alcohol appeared first on The Drinks Business.

Mar 17, 2025 - 11:36

Why young Americans are turning away from alcohol

It’s a question vexing booze boardrooms: is the younger generation turning away from alcohol? If so, is it a permanent trend or will “normal” patterns eventually re-establish themselves? Colourful overlapping wine Glasses for Wine Menu. wine bottle, wine, alcohol, glass, Gen Z

A Gallup survey released last year, for example, reported a higher likelihood that young American adults will note health risks associated with alcohol — and drink less. Perceptions of alcohol have changed more significantly than the industry realizes, Bill Shufelt, CEO of nonalcoholic beer company Athletic Brewery told a UBS conference in New York last week. Half of Americans have indicated on surveys that they want to drink less, he said, and that view is widely held among millennials and Gen Z, who he believes are better-educated on health issues and have more alcohol-free options to choose from. Half of millennials and 60% of Gen Z refrained from drinking for a week or more over six months in 2024, according to surveys conducted by global insights and data firm IWSR.

Sobriety surge

“These are probably big, big generational headwinds in perception out there that I think are just in the very early innings,” Shufelt said. “That message has not gotten through from consumers back up the chain yet.” Some of the reasons for changing tastes may be more transitory, Shufelt said, noting economic pressure and rising alcohol prices. He said legacy alcohol companies can still reach people, and alcohol — “a 5,000-year-old trend"— isn’t on the brink of becoming irrelevant. Alcohol spending has fallen among younger Americans, said Lawson Whiting, CEO of Brown-Forman, but he said health concerns “aren't the main reason this demographic is holding back.”

Economic pressures

“If you’re 21, 22, 23 years old and you’re just coming out of college or whatever it might be your pocketbook is in serious strain,” Whiting said. Many consumers, he said, are cost-conscious and have been buying smaller quantities of alcohol as a way to save. Michel Doukeris, CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, said the shift could be a glitch caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. “Covid was a very disruptive event that caught a generation between 17, and 18 years old that today is [of] legal drinking age, but they’re not everybody,” said Doukeris. As people approach their mid-20s, "we see a normalisation of some behaviours.”