Why is Gen Z drinking less?
Story at a glance
Young people are drinking less now than they did in prior generations.
Many Gen Zers are abstaining from booze entirely.
Experts and Gen Zers themselves connect the change to an awareness of the risks associated with alcohol.
Young people aren’t drinking like they used to.
Gen Zers are drinking less than young people in past generations: about 20 percent less alcohol per capita than millennials did at their age, according to a report from Berenberg Research.
And many are forgoing booze entirely. The share of college-age adults abstaining from alcohol has grown from 20 to 28 percent over the last two decades, a University of Michigan study found.
The shift away from alcohol stems in part from a heightened awareness of the risks that come with drinking, from poor decisionmaking to addiction to negative health impacts.
Young people “are actually learning that alcohol is toxic to humans,” said Charles Smith, an addiction specialist at the American Addiction Centers Recovery First Treatment Center in Hollywood, Fla.
Over time, drinking alcohol can lead to the development of numerous health problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease and memory problems and cause at least eight different kinds of cancers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In fact, alcohol has such harmful effects on the human body the World Health Organization announced earlier this year that there is no level of safe alcohol consumption.
Some young people have gained awareness of the risks associated with alcohol through personal experience. They’ve watched friends or family encounter them. Or they’ve lived through it themselves.
That was the case for Reilly Gillespie, a 20-year-old Annapolis resident, who found herself confined to her Hood College dormitory when the pandemic hit in 2020. Like many Americans at that time, both young and old, she turned to alcohol to help manage the emotional turmoil of COVID-19 and to pass the time while locked indoors.
“There really wasn’t much else to do. You couldn’t dance or play loud music or socialize out at a legitimate party or bar like most people would do before COVID,” said Gillespie. “We were just kind of stuck in our dorm rooms and we would just kind of drink and drink and smoke.”
Gillespie soon found herself drinking at least “a few” cans of hard seltzer every day or taking a couple of shots of hard liquor. Eventually, what started out as something that she did for fun turned into “a coping mechanism for everything.”
By the beginning of 2023, Gillespie started to call in sick to work to nurse her daily hangovers. She would skip meals so that her buzz would hit her more quickly when she decided to drink. And she began to have severe heart palpitations when she drank in the afternoon and evening that would last until the following morning.
One morning the palpitations were so strong Gillespie decided to go to an emergency room. “There was still a large amount of alcohol in my bloodstream, and I had a nurse talk to me and she basically told me that I was worth more than that,” said Gillespie. “It was kind of my come to Jesus moment.”
Not all Gen Zers have personal experience with the negative side of alcohol like Gillespie does. But even those who don’t have learned about the risks through their education and over the internet, Smith notes. And that exposure has contributed to the decline in drinking.
“Through social media, through education, cooler heads have prevailed,” said Smith. “You never go to the doctor and for routine health maintenance, and he says, you know, I think you should start drinking some alcohol.”
Gen Z prioritizes wellness, both mental and physical, more than generations past.
Half of Gen Zers work out, compared to just 45 percent of other generations, according to a recent survey from Becker’s Hospital Review. They also take personalized supplements and attend regular therapy sessions at higher rates than millennials, Gen Xers and boomers.
Health is the main reason why Sam*, a 24-year-old communications worker based in Washington, D.C., gave up drinking three months ago.
He was not a frequent drinker to begin with, but he found himself falling into a pattern of working intensely during the week and then going out to drink with friends on Friday and Saturday and then spending the day playing soccer on Sunday.
“There was no moment for body and mind to rest,” he said. So he chose to cut alcohol from this weekly routine.
But Sam is not entirely sober and will still occasionally smoke cannabis after work or with friends, just like he did when he drank.
Cannabis use has become increasingly more commonplace as more states legalize the drug for medicinal and recreational purposes. Now, 29 percent of young men and women across the country use cannabis at least occasionally, according to federal data.
Cannabis, Sam said, fits in better with how Gen Z socializes. Gen Zers tend to be homebodies thanks to growing up with a plethora of food delivery apps, streaming platforms and other on-demand services that can be accessed from home, he noted.
“I think that weed kind of lends itself to that concept more than alcohol in my eyes,” he said.
Only 58 percent of Gen Z consider going out to bars and restaurants as “an important part” of how they socialize, compared to 65 percent of millennials, according to 2021 survey findings from Technomic, a food industry research and analytic company, shared with The Hill.
A spokesperson from Technomic added that Gen Zers “lag” millennials in drinking alcohol nearly every time they go out to a bar or restaurant.
“Bottom line is that Gen Zers have more options than prior generations … and do engage with all of them,” the spokesperson said. “Their personal consumption portfolio is very diverse.”
* Name has been changed for the purpose of anonymity
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
