Alcohol loses appeal: Drinking drops to 86-year low

Fewer Americans are toasting success or drowning their sorrows with alcohol.

A new Gallup Poll finds that 54% of Americans say they drink alcohol. While that may represent a majority of Americans, that’s the lowest percentage since Gallup began surveying drinking habits in 1939, only a few years after the end of Prohibition.

And for the first time, a majority of Americans (53%) say moderate drinking is unhealthy. Gallup defined moderate drinking as one or two drinks a day.

Many health leaders have pointed to greater health risks from regular drinking. Alcohol has been called one of the leading avoidable risks for cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. In January, then-Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory on the risks of alcohol, and suggested that labels warning of cancer risks tied to drinking should be placed on alcohol products.

Americans have been drinking less in recent years. At least 60% of Americans said they drank alcohol from 1997 to 2023.

But the rate dropped from 62% in 2023 to 58% in 2024, before tumbling again this year to 54%. The highest numbers were reported in the late 1970s, when 71% of Americans said they drank alcohol.

Younger adults are showing less interest in alcohol. Only half (50%) of adults 18 to 34 years of age say they drink, and that’s a noticeable drop over the past couple of years. In 2023, 59% of adults in that age range said they drink.

There was a big drop in reported drinking from adults 35 to 54 years old. In the latest poll, 56% of adults in that age group said they drank, down from 66% two years ago.

White adults are more likely to drink than people of color (56% to 52%).

Women are less likely to drink than men. A solid majority of men (57%) say they consume alcohol, compared to 51% of women.

While more people are saying that drinking isn’t healthy, some of the decline in drinking may not necessarily reflect health reasons.

More Americans are smoking marijuana in recent years. According to Gallup polling, 15% of Americans smoked marijuana in surveying over 2023-2024, up from 7% in 2013.