Gen Z and young millennials are driving a great American drinking decline, Gallup poll shows

Economy·Food and drinkGen Z and young millennials are driving a great American drinking decline, Gallup poll showsBy Linley SandersBy The Associated PressBy Linley SandersBy The Associated Press Gen Z usually doesn't order a drink.Getty ImagesFewer Americans are reporting that they drink alcohol amid a growing belief that even moderate alcohol consumption is a health risk, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday

The uptick in doubt alcohol’s benefits is largely driven by young adults — the age group that is most ly to believe drinking “one or two drinks a day” can cause health hazards — but older adults are also now increasingly ly to think moderate drinking carries risks

As concerns health impacts rise, fewer Americans are reporting that they drink

That’s lower than at any other point in the past three decades

The findings of the poll, which was conducted in July, indicate that after years of many believing that moderate drinking was harmless — or even beneficial — worries alcohol consumption are taking hold

According to Gallup’s data, even those who consume alcohol are drinking less

The federal government is updating new dietary guidelines, including those around alcohol

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, government data showed U.S. alcohol consumption was up

But other government surveys have shown a decline in certain types of drinking, particularly among teenagers and young adults

This comes alongside a new drumbeat of information alcohol’s risks

While moderate drinking was once thought to have benefits for heart health, health fessionals in recent years have pointed to overwhelming evidence that alcohol consumption leads to negative health outcomes and is a leading cause of cancer

Growing skepticism alcohol’s benefits Younger adults have been quicker than older Americans to accept that drinking is harmful, but older adults are coming around to the same view. two-thirds of 18- to 34-year-olds believe moderate drinking is unhealthy, according to the poll, up from 4 in 10 in 2015

Older adults are less ly to see alcohol as harmful — half of Americans age 55 or older believe this — but that’s a substantial increase, too

In the past, moderate drinking was thought to have some benefits

That idea came from imperfect studies that largely didn’t include younger people and couldn’t ve cause and effect

Now the scientific consensus has shifted, and several countries recently lowered their alcohol consumption recommendations

Earlier this year, the outgoing U.S. surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, a label on bottles of beer, wine and liquor that would ly outline the link between alcohol consumption and cancer

The federal government’s current dietary guidelines recommend Americans not drink or, if they do consume alcohol, men should limit themselves to two drinks a day or fewer while women should stick to one or fewer

Gallup’s director of U.S. social re, Lydia Saad, said shifting health advice throughout older Americans’ s may be a reason they have been more gradual than young adults to recognize alcohol as harmful. “Older folks may be a little more hardened in terms of the whiplash that they get with recommendations,” Saad said. “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.” The government is expected to release new guidelines later this year, under the directive of health secretary Robert F

Kennedy Jr., who has mised big changes

Kennedy has not hinted at how the alcohol recommendations may shift

Young Americans’ alcohol consumption has been downward for years, accelerating the overall decline in alcohol consumption

In sharp contrast with Gallup’s findings two decades ago, when young adults were liest to report drinking, young adults’ drinking rate is now slightly below middle-aged and older adults

Americans’ reported drinking is among the lowest since the question was first asked in 1939

For most of the last few decades, at least 6 in 10 Americans have reported drinking alcoholic beverages, only dipping below that point a few times in the question’s history

Americans who drink alcohol are consuming less Even if concerns health risks aren’t causing some adults to give up alcohol entirely, these worries could be influencing how often they drink

The survey found that adults who think moderate drinking is bad for one’s health are just as ly as people who don’t those concerns to report that they drink, but fewer of the people with health worries had consumed alcohol recently. half of those who worry moderate drinking is unhealthy said they had a drink in the previous week, compared with 7 in 10 who did not think drinking was bad for their health

Overall, only one-quarter of Americans who drink said they had consumed alcohol in the prior 24 hours, a record low in the survey

Roughly 4 in 10 said that it had been more than a week since they had poured a drink. ___ Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz contributed to this report

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