Percentage of Americans Drinking Alcohol Hits Historic Low

Fewer Americans say they’re drinking alcohol amid ongoing research that’s found it negatively impacts health in the long term.

Fifty-four percent of Americans say they drink alcohol — the lowest ever recorded by Gallup, which began polling people about their drinking habits in 1939. The number has been steadily declining since 2022, when 67% of Americans reported drinking; In 2023, that fell to 62%. Last year, 58% reported drinking alcohol.

For the first time in the history of the poll, the majority of Americans (53%) say that drinking, even in moderation, is bad for your health.

The news comes amid ongoing reports about the negative health impacts from drinking; In a Jan. 3 report, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called for alcohol to carry warning labels for cancer, saying it causes nearly 100,000 cancer cases and approximately 20,000 cancer deaths every year. 

As little as eight alcoholic drinks a week has been linked to an increase in dementia, per a study in the scientific journal Neurology; author Alberto Fernando Oliveira Justo of the University of Sao Paulo Medical School in Brazil said in a press release that “heavy alcohol consumption is damaging to the brain, which can lead to memory and thinking problems.” 

A 2022 study from The Lancet medical journal found that for people aged 15 to 39, there is no health benefit to drinking alcohol, only health risks.

Younger people, who’ve grown up hearing about the negative impacts of alcohol, are likely leading the trend, Time reported: “Older folks have lived through the period when the medical advice was ‘drinking could be beneficial to you,’ so hearing that it’s now harmful to your health is a 180 for them and so they have to mentally move a bigger distance to say ‘maybe I shouldn’t be drinking,’ ” Lydia Saad, Gallup Director of U.S. Social Research, told the outlet.

She explained that for younger people, “It’s not, I think, as much of a behavior change for them … as it would be for their parents and grandparents who have to do a real pivot in terms of how they look at the risks of drinking.”

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The poll found that just 50% of those aged 18 to 34 report drinking, whereas 56% of those 35-55, and 55 and older drink.  

“I do believe the change in public sentiment is a good reflection of the change in science,” Tim Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, told The Washington Post. “The risks of alcohol, in what some people might have previously considered low levels, are higher than previously appreciated.”