According to a new Gallup poll this marks a big shift in favors of how Americans drink. Beer, wine, and distilled spirits are alcoholic beverages that just over half of U.S. adults report consuming on occasion—54% to be exact. This is the highest level of per capita alcohol consumption in the past thirty years. On the one hand, it marks a growing societal willingness to rethink our relationship with alcohol.
The federal government’s dietary guidelines call on Americans not to drink, or if they do, to drink less. Men should not exceed an average of two drinks per day and no more than one drink per day for women. These recommendations have greatly influenced public perceptions of alcohol use. As a consequence, many people come to think that any amount of drinking—even the moderate variety—has harmful effects on health. This poll confirmed the significant shift in perception among all U.S. adults. Now, 53% think moderate drinking is bad for their health—a dramatic reversal from only 28% saying so in 2015.
Young adults are especially likely to see moderate drinking as harmful. About three-fourths of people under 35 answer yes to this question, a huge jump from about 40% in 2015. Approximately 50% of Americans age 55 or older currently view moderate drinking as unhealthy. That’s a big leap from only 20% who agreed with that statement back in 2015.
One bright spot in this trend of increasing awareness is that younger adults have been faster to recognize the risks of alcohol use. Lydia Saad, Gallup’s senior editor, said that younger and older Americans are viewing alcohol use differently and that generational differences were at play.
“Older folks may be a little more hardened in terms of the whiplash that they get with recommendations,” – Lydia Saad
She noted that younger generations have been raised in an environment of increased messaging about alcohol use. This concern is more acute today than ever before.
“It may take them a little longer to absorb or accept the information. Whereas, for young folks, this is the environment that they’ve grown up in … in many cases, it would be the first thing young adults would have heard as they were coming into adulthood.” – Lydia Saad
The survey found that roughly 4 in 10 U.S. adults reported it had been over a week since they last consumed a drink. In fact, less than one out of four American drinkers said they had any alcohol in the last day. That is the lowest level ever recorded since the poll began asking this question all the way back in 1939. Typically, six in ten Americans said they consumed alcoholic drinks over the majority of the past several decades.
These shifting perceptions around drinking are having a serious effect on public health policy. As U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has promised, we should see new recommendations from him along these lines before the end of the year. Murthy had a similar recommendation to require prominent labels on containers of beer, wine, and liquor. These labels would detail how each specific type of alcohol consumption contributes to increased cancer risk.
Even before the COVID pandemic, federal data showed a rise in Americans’ alcohol consumption. Recent shifts point toward a reevaluation of drinking habits as public awareness about health risks associated with alcohol continues to grow.
