On July 1, 2024, the census estimates of the number of each generation of drinking age, if I’m reading this Excel spreadsheet correctly:
Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012, but as of 2024 the only legal drinking age was those born between 1997 and 2003): 31.3 million
Millennial (born between 1981 and 1996): 74.1 million
Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980): 65.6 million
Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964): 66.9 million
So assuming that 20-somethings have less money to spend on expensive alcohol, and recognizing that Gen Z has less than half the drinking age population as the other generations, it’s not surprising for that generation to spend less on alcohol, even if their habits weren’t different than the older generations.
Now, their habits actually are different, so that might stretch things further. But a better way to present the data would be adjusted per capita. And maybe looking at historical data about when prior generations were the same age.
It’s because they can barely pay rent.
This needs to be per capita, not total
Gen Z hasn’t been 21 or older for as long as the other groups, thus they haven’t spent as much on booze yet.
Have you seen the price of a beer now? Each night at the pub ends up being $100+
Considering half of Gen Z isn’t even legal drinking age yet, this isn’t too surprising.
Plus with declining birthrates in developed countries there are probably fewer overall Gen Z people than older cohorts. So even if they drank at the same rate you could still expect the absolute amount of alcohol consumption to be lower.
By that logic it should be around 10B by now
People in their 20s tend to buy well drinks and cheap beer unless they’re independently wealthy. Older people tend to have more expensive, or at least more specific, preferences.
Raw spending doesn’t mean much in isolation.
No because the half that currently can’t drink might drink twice as much
Other drugs are cheaper, and readily available.
https://northjerseyrecovery.com/why-gen-z-is-drinking-less-but-using-more-drugs/
Stimulants like Adderall and Xanax are often misused to cope with academic and social pressures.
I never knew benzodiazepines were stimulants.
They’re not? But they do help with the anxiety of academic and social pressures
It should say “Stimulants like adderal and depressents like Xanax are used to cope wiyh academic and social pressures”
Ah yes! The prostitutes, JFK and Stalin
And often less harmfull than alcohol
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“Fading”, more like jumped off a cliff.
There is no safe amount of alcohol to drink.
Everyone is broke.
They watched their parents make asses of themselves while drunk, and today everyone has a video camera in their hand.
Wow, I don’t spend nearly this amount on alcohol
Those are rookie numbers. Gotta push em up
Don’t worry, I’m bringing the average back up again.
Because they’re weak.
In all seriousness, income has stayed about the same in nominal terms, but the cost of living has gone way up even between millennials and gen z. So really income has gone down and booze is much more of a luxury.
There’s part of it but also anecdotally a lot of us are aware that alcohol in pretty much any quality has negative effects and therefore don’t drink at all. There’s a lot less pressure to drink than in expect there was for other generations, it’s pretty normal for me to meet other people who prefer not to drink.
alcohol in pretty much any quality has negative effects
The key is that this guidance came out somewhere between millennial and gen z coming of age.
When I was a child the TV news would run “health” stories about how moderate amounts of red wine are good for you. It turned out those studies were funded by the alcohol industry.
Drug use, and especially problematic drug use, has low price elasticity and the US is a relatively high-income country. The cost of living is almost certainly a negligible factor in the decline of alcohol consumption.
Although most of the gains have gone to top earners, US real median household income has trended slightly upwards over time and is not “way [down].”
Moreover, high-income European countries where even fewer people are budget-constrained when it comes to drug use have also seen dramatic declines in alcohol consumption.
Normalize it for age. How much did GenX spend at 22 vs GenZ? It could be similar, but it’s not clear. Of course old people have more disposable income once the mortgage is paid off and GenZ can’t get a mortage, just an expensive rental.
There’s a big drop off in drinking overall and it’s a good thing. Yet genZ is back on nicotine.
Wait until you see Gen Alpha’s spending on alcohol!
Yeah, I know some Gen Z college kids, and I will attest they definitely spend significant money on alcohol. And cigarettes.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the vice money is just split between alcohol, cigarettes, weed, vape carts, and adderall. So, just diluted.
Is illicit Adderall in the US “real”? Or are they usually pressed fakes?
I never understood why speed is/was so uncommon when I was in the US a long time ago. I was offered basically everything there, but never normal speed (without methamphetamine in it) like in Europe.
Idk. I think people get legitimate prescriptions and sell pills, mostly. If it’s not buying from someone you know who sourced them that way, idk how you’d verify it’s what they say it is.
We’re less social, drinks in public spaces have gotten too expensive, weed
lol this thread not realizing it’s a shitpost, half of gen z have not make it to drinking age and this data could be years old
I would assume it’s because most of them are still children.
I know this is a shitpost but I’ve noticed that since the covid lockdown, a lot of my Gen-X friends and colleagues have quit drinking. Not a majority, but enough for me to notice. The boomers I know never slowed down…at all. Has anyone else noticed a drop in alcohol consumption within your social circles?
I’ve seen the opposite, and when I got my physical my doctor definitely supported that everyone has been drinking a lot more than previous. I’d say my use ticked down during lockdown but up afterwards 🤷♂️
I stopped drinking when covid hit. Turns out I was a social drinker, and I never got back on the wagon.
GenXer here. I started drinking due to social pressure almost 30 years ago. I basically completely stopped already before covid. My wife is the same. On occasion one or two drinks when going out, but we don’t have anything at home. My cousin (similar age) and her husband went completely dry.
I think it’s more of an awareness of the health risks (also huge “don’t drink and drive” campaigns when I was reaching drinking age), add to that if we’re honest it doesn’t really taste that good, enduring a hangover is nothing to look forward to and also (at least in my case) I am fed up with how our society still looks weird at people that just don’t want to drink. Screw everyone who asks two or three times if someone says they want a non-alcoholic beverage or, even worse, makes stupid jokes, mostly to feel better about their own addiction.
Sorry got a bit heated at the end. My son recently reached legal drinking age, does not want to drink and is being pressured by peers to start drinking. Luckily he is mentally strong enough to tell them to go suck a duck.
Now hang on a second there. We gotta get one thing straight!
…did the duck consent to being sucked?
