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.
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.
Also, THC drinks are all over the US now and very popular. Most of my (young millennial) friends there barely drink alcohol and have swapped them with gummies and seltzers.
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.
Man I went to a party last week, had one glass of red wine and no other alcohol, and woke up the next morning with a killer headache. I’m 42 and not much of a drinker but this kind of reaction made me think it was specifically the red wine. I ain’t doing that again for a long while, if ever.
Low quality wine is much worse than its alcohol content.
Random personal anecdote: I can’t drink stout beers anymore. A single one gives me the worst hangovers. Same quantity of alcohol in other beverages doesn’t have nearly the same effects.
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.
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.
Nobody has healthcare, housing is unaffordable, we pay for everything with our tax dollars but all the profits go to corrupt pedofiles, Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison are turning the country into a mass surveillance prison for us to live in, there’s no laws for the rich, the earth is dying because the pedofile class doesn’t give a fuck about anything except doing as much evil as possible, there’s a genocide going on and 95% of American politicians are giving away unlimited amounts of our tax dollars to fund it and for the genocidal country to have universal healthcare and free college and a $400 monthly payment per child, the same politicians want to make it illegal to talk about or boycott Israel for their crimes, Trump has the nuclear codes, a secret police force is disappearing people and shooting people who are exercising their first amendment rights women’s rights are being stripped away and a lot of the boys and men are cheering…..I could go on and on but the reason is there’s nothing to celebrate
In Germany, we have the word "schönsaufen", which means something along the line of "drinking until something or someone ugly looks pretty" and I think that's beautiful.
My alcohol consumption has dropped directly because of this. I use to get a six pack and a bottle of wine and go out a few times a month and now I literally can't afford any of it.
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.
Excellent, I was thinking the same thing. If a graph shows that big a difference, it usually means that it is exploiting some not displayed variable to get the difference. Kids these days need to learn to spot such things.
the theory that distinct generational behaviors can be bounded in ~15 year increments (which you display nicely above) has always seemed a bit off to me.
Drinking is so ingrained in human culture that people often get into it because of social pressure.
That's why it's given special treatment in comparison with drugs like weed, even though it's more dangerous.
Millennial here. Pressure was there to drink when growing up. College everyone was boozing. You were weird if you didn't booze.
Times are different now and the pressure is off. I think this will be huge, plus weed is a way better vice. Hangover is basically zero, no long term effects with heavy use, and generally a fun time.
Rather debate the moon's creation than drag Becky out to the car again and hope she doesn't puke in my car.
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?
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.
so, all we know, it could have been a robot duck. which brings us to the difficult question: can robots consent? is it unethical to suck a robot without their consent?
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 🤷♂️
Bingo. Yet another example of an age effect being attributed to a generational difference. I’m so tired of these horoscope-like characterizations of people
Sure a per capita (18+) comparison would be more useful than NET expenditure? It might be lower but there are too many possible variables that aren't accounted for.
For example the graph below seems to indicate younger audiences drink dramatically less beer and wine than older generations, but dramatically more Hard Seltzers than Baby Boomers.
IDK Im an older millenial and pretty much stopped drinking a decade ago. Never had a problem, but I just got too busy going back to school and working full time. Then I started noticing how many people I knew who were using it as a crutch to get through the week. Others were amazed when I said I couldn't remember the last time I drank. It just started to really turn me off drinking once I noticed how seemingly everyone had a terrible relationship with alcohol.
Now I drink again but not much. i buy a small box of wine to make a recipe every now and then and will drink the leftover glass or two. In the summer I feel a beer goes well with yard work but i buy a sixpack or two all summer and probably have leftovers come fall. Ocassionally I'll go out and have a beer with people. All in all maybe $100-$200 a year but probably less
Where i live alcohol isn't available in the grocery store. So I basically stopped because I was too lazy to go too a separate store for something I didn't really need. There are sooo meny other drinks available now that taste wonderful with no alcohol.
I've seen the line drawn a few different places, but generally Gen Z starts at around 1996-1998 or so. In any case, the oldest Gen Z have been drinking age for a while.
Legitimately I think it's because Gen Z and below are horribly anxious and not very social. We really fucked these kids' confidence over at every opportunity and now we're wondering why they're not going out to parties and stuff and why they're not really dating.
Why spend on alcohol when I can buy more books, games, travel the world or join a sports club instead of damaging my own body and end up paying more with hospital bills later in life?
Ozempic and the like also affect impulse control (and a whole lot of other stuff, the health effect research is technically ongoing).
So if you're on it you don't feel the desire to snack, it helps you moderate yourself, and I guess it stands to reason it would lower the impulse to drink too.
Though I'm just guessing here, take this with a grain of salt.
When I was 19 I could barely scrape together $22 for a 30 rack of something cheap.
When I was 14 I had never tried alcohol. Obviously the 21-25 crowd might be expected to spend slightly more on alcohol (maybe?) than the 26-30 crowd. But like even if Gen Z isn't drinking (which I hear is true) I wouldn't expect them to spend a lot on booze, for a host of reasons.
Yeah but how was the data collected? At bars and pubs? The cost of alcohol has always been pricey but its been very expensive for gen z. We had pre-drinks before going out and then didnt spend much at the pub coz we were already on a few things. Im in my 30s now and i still do predrinks before going somewhere or i just dont drink coz im not paying $20 for a shot of gin with some tonic water
Fellow GenX here. A bottle of Jameson's was $20 just 2 years ago. Now it's $30. I only ever buy it on mega sale. Can't really afford to drink it that often, so I save it for special occasions. $10 more may not sound like a lot to some but to me it's the cost of dinner for 2 nights.
Gen Zs grew up watching all kinds of messages about drinking and driving, probably saw relatives screw up their lives with DUIs. Going out to drink isn't an attractive idea.
Gen Zs are the generation with the least acces to decent wages, and alcohol in restaurants and bars has become extremely expensive. Going out drinking costs way too much.
Weed is easily available, and far cheaper. You can easily blow $50 in a bar in one evening, while $50 can buy enough weed for a week, and you won't be waking up hungover every morning.
It's not just Gen Z, I'm an old guy, and I don't like to drink when I go out. I might have a beer with dinner, but never more than one. I'd never drink more than a couple and drive home. You can get a DUI even if you aren't feeling the effects, and I can't deal with that. I'll just drink at home.
Can't speak for them Zoomers in the US, but my guess would be that Corona is responsible for the sharp decline. Most of GenZ reached drinking age around that time and boozing alone is by far not as fun as in a group.
I suspect it has to do with what their primary activities are. Perhaps they're spending less time in groups and more time isolated, communicating digitally.
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.
It was never the avacodo toast preventing millenials from buying a house. It was the $34 Billion they each spent every year on booze.
If only they knew how to budget.
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
Also, THC drinks are all over the US now and very popular. Most of my (young millennial) friends there barely drink alcohol and have swapped them with gummies and seltzers.
"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.
I think this sums it up
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.
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.
Man I went to a party last week, had one glass of red wine and no other alcohol, and woke up the next morning with a killer headache. I’m 42 and not much of a drinker but this kind of reaction made me think it was specifically the red wine. I ain’t doing that again for a long while, if ever.
Now this is a half remembered anecdote so... pinch of salt.
But I do remeber something about some people having negative reactions to the tannins in red wine. So it might not so much be the alcohol.
Low quality wine is much worse than its alcohol content.
Random personal anecdote: I can’t drink stout beers anymore. A single one gives me the worst hangovers. Same quantity of alcohol in other beverages doesn’t have nearly the same effects.
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.
Nobody has healthcare, housing is unaffordable, we pay for everything with our tax dollars but all the profits go to corrupt pedofiles, Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison are turning the country into a mass surveillance prison for us to live in, there’s no laws for the rich, the earth is dying because the pedofile class doesn’t give a fuck about anything except doing as much evil as possible, there’s a genocide going on and 95% of American politicians are giving away unlimited amounts of our tax dollars to fund it and for the genocidal country to have universal healthcare and free college and a $400 monthly payment per child, the same politicians want to make it illegal to talk about or boycott Israel for their crimes, Trump has the nuclear codes, a secret police force is disappearing people and shooting people who are exercising their first amendment rights women’s rights are being stripped away and a lot of the boys and men are cheering…..I could go on and on but the reason is there’s nothing to celebrate
In Germany, we have the word "schönsaufen", which means something along the line of "drinking until something or someone ugly looks pretty" and I think that's beautiful.
Elder millennial here.
…that just about sums it up. Well done.
what about chocolate, and smiling more. Have you tried those?
smh
That would be a reason for more alcohol
It’s because they can barely pay rent.
My alcohol consumption has dropped directly because of this. I use to get a six pack and a bottle of wine and go out a few times a month and now I literally can't afford any of it.
Yeah, poor people are notoriously sober
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
Other drugs are cheaper, and readily available.
https://northjerseyrecovery.com/why-gen-z-is-drinking-less-but-using-more-drugs/
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
Reminds me of the time I helped my uncle jack off a horse.
And often less harmfull than alcohol
Half of gen Z can't legally drink and 75% of them are broke?
They wouldn't be broke if they weren't such lazy moochers and worked real jobs!
^/s^ ^just^ ^in^ ^case^
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.
Excellent, I was thinking the same thing. If a graph shows that big a difference, it usually means that it is exploiting some not displayed variable to get the difference. Kids these days need to learn to spot such things.
the theory that distinct generational behaviors can be bounded in ~15 year increments (which you display nicely above) has always seemed a bit off to me.
Because we're broke
Marijuana legalization has to be a big part of it
The mileage you can get out of $20 of weed is substantially more than $20 of wine, even with taxes and price inflation
You can get 2 bottles each of which can be about 4 servings over 3 days per bottle.
Gen Z here. Tastes like shit
Drinking is so ingrained in human culture that people often get into it because of social pressure.
That's why it's given special treatment in comparison with drugs like weed, even though it's more dangerous.
I actually rather like the taste. Although it's certainly an acquired taste. Like salminak
Likely you haven't had anything that doesn't taste like shit.
I had, until I tasted alcohol. You'd think something that ruins lives would at last had a taste that justified it.
There's this neat life hack where you drink enough and forget all about the taste - and most of the previous night, to boot!
I don't actually drink though, tastes like shit.
tastes more like hand sanitizer, but I like the taste of hand sanitizer so I'll drink it, but it's also too expensive
Bevlcause half of Gen Z is under 21 and the rest is broke?
We're less social, drinks in public spaces have gotten too expensive, weed
This needs to be per capita, not total
To start with.
Per Capita over 21
Have you seen the price of a beer now? Each night at the pub ends up being $100+
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.
But it's true in gen Z outside US as well. So something like affordability is a problem globally for them.
Millennial here. Pressure was there to drink when growing up. College everyone was boozing. You were weird if you didn't booze.
Times are different now and the pressure is off. I think this will be huge, plus weed is a way better vice. Hangover is basically zero, no long term effects with heavy use, and generally a fun time.
Rather debate the moon's creation than drag Becky out to the car again and hope she doesn't puke in my car.
I would assume it’s because most of them are still children.
Alcohol costs money. Middle class is dead. Probably will see a lot more people making homemade things.
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?
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?
i only know this much: if it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, then it is a duck
so, all we know, it could have been a robot duck. which brings us to the difficult question: can robots consent? is it unethical to suck a robot without their consent?
I stopped drinking when covid hit. Turns out I was a social drinker, and I never got back on the wagon.
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 🤷♂️
Most Gen Z-ers can't legally buy alcohol yet.
And illegal consumption doesn't make it into the statistic.
I hate to break it to you but the oldest of gen z start turning 30 next year...
Isn't the legal drinking age in the US 35 or something like that?
57 actually. That's why the numbers are so high for boomers and Gen x, we have to get them to buy the booze for us.
Cries in 39 year old Millennial
It's okay, you can come sit next to this 42 year old millennial
Oh that's my favourite spot in the stall! Thank you, friend!
They have to buy the booze cuz you're even poorer than them
That's cause I spend all my money on avocado toast.
Worth it though !
What about the youngest? I never know where cut off is.
I thought the cutoff was 2010, but apparently it's 2012, so the youngest are 14. Each generation spans about 15 years.
Bingo. Yet another example of an age effect being attributed to a generational difference. I’m so tired of these horoscope-like characterizations of people
I suspect that smoking weed has replaced a lot of drinking for much of GenZ.
Poor.
The point of alcohol is to not remember your poverty 🙃
To hell with poverty... let's get drunk on cheap wine...
Yes but liver disease is expensive.
Sure a per capita (18+) comparison would be more useful than NET expenditure? It might be lower but there are too many possible variables that aren't accounted for.
For example the graph below seems to indicate younger audiences drink dramatically less beer and wine than older generations, but dramatically more Hard Seltzers than Baby Boomers.
Why doesn't this just have a combined category so we can figure out how many drink rather than what they drink
And also, those years aren't exactly right for the generational categories. Millennials are 1980-1996, boomers are 1946-1964, etc.
IDK Im an older millenial and pretty much stopped drinking a decade ago. Never had a problem, but I just got too busy going back to school and working full time. Then I started noticing how many people I knew who were using it as a crutch to get through the week. Others were amazed when I said I couldn't remember the last time I drank. It just started to really turn me off drinking once I noticed how seemingly everyone had a terrible relationship with alcohol.
Now I drink again but not much. i buy a small box of wine to make a recipe every now and then and will drink the leftover glass or two. In the summer I feel a beer goes well with yard work but i buy a sixpack or two all summer and probably have leftovers come fall. Ocassionally I'll go out and have a beer with people. All in all maybe $100-$200 a year but probably less
Where i live alcohol isn't available in the grocery store. So I basically stopped because I was too lazy to go too a separate store for something I didn't really need. There are sooo meny other drinks available now that taste wonderful with no alcohol.
Thats part of it too. Just beer and wine in the grocery store.
My mom and dad and myself and my younger brother are all alcoholics. Two of us have recovered, two of us have not.
My youngest brother is on the spectrum and refuses to touch alcohol at all because he's watched it destroy lives and steal souls.
That's how this chart plays out in my family., ymmv.
Is Gen Z even allowed to drink yet?
At least some of us are, yes. Im generally considered gen Z and ive been legally allowed to drink for years
The last gen z are nearly finished with high school. The oldest gen alpha kids are in high school. We're a year into gen beta being born.
I've seen the line drawn a few different places, but generally Gen Z starts at around 1996-1998 or so. In any case, the oldest Gen Z have been drinking age for a while.
Poorest generation spends the least on a luxury.
Cocktails are $20 a pop. Hell, mocktails are like $15 a pop and they don't contain alcohol.
Well apparently smoking is making a comeback thanks to GenZ, if we have to believe the media.
I think they get their buzz from vaping
Many Gen Z are under 21
Gen Z refers to the demographic cohort born roughly between 1997 and 2012. So ages 13 to 28. Seven years of data is a fine enough sample set.
This is total expenditure though
Internet and games. Stay inside sober and have fun - including chatting with possible partners - instead of going out drinking trying to get laid.
/GenX who did the drinking variant. Gen Z has it better.
Now show cbd/pot use.
Legitimately I think it's because Gen Z and below are horribly anxious and not very social. We really fucked these kids' confidence over at every opportunity and now we're wondering why they're not going out to parties and stuff and why they're not really dating.
Why spend on alcohol when I can buy more books, games, travel the world or join a sports club instead of damaging my own body and end up paying more with hospital bills later in life?
Weed is clearly superior (at lest for me)
Vaping is massive with them too.
Cocaine, cannabis, lack of money, and the rest having enough braincells to have a healthy and suistanable diet
They have to spend like 80% of their income on housing. The rest on groceries and bills.
tiktok and youtube thats why. that pretty much is the new alcohol. Also things GLP-1, omezpic, and WEGOVY also is a threat to alcohol industry.
Why? Do thin people not drink?
Because people don't have unlimited money, I guess.
Ozempic and the like also affect impulse control (and a whole lot of other stuff, the health effect research is technically ongoing).
So if you're on it you don't feel the desire to snack, it helps you moderate yourself, and I guess it stands to reason it would lower the impulse to drink too.
Though I'm just guessing here, take this with a grain of salt.
Because alcohol is bad for you?
Our parents were still told that a glass of wine a day was healthy.
Gen Y here, love Gen Zs. You got it, folks, keep resisting.
When I was 19 I could barely scrape together $22 for a 30 rack of something cheap.
When I was 14 I had never tried alcohol. Obviously the 21-25 crowd might be expected to spend slightly more on alcohol (maybe?) than the 26-30 crowd. But like even if Gen Z isn't drinking (which I hear is true) I wouldn't expect them to spend a lot on booze, for a host of reasons.
Isn't it common for people to start consuming alcohol with age? I found it disgusting still at 20
Not really. Teenagers and young adults used to party a lot, and those parties used to have a lot of alcohol
To be fair, back then I didn't have GTA 5
Because they have no money!
Of course not. Healthcare in the USA is a nightmare.
They like the cheap shit. Generation MD.
The generation that won't answer their phone or door and that doesn't spend much time with friends. You don't say.
Yeah but how was the data collected? At bars and pubs? The cost of alcohol has always been pricey but its been very expensive for gen z. We had pre-drinks before going out and then didnt spend much at the pub coz we were already on a few things. Im in my 30s now and i still do predrinks before going somewhere or i just dont drink coz im not paying $20 for a shot of gin with some tonic water
This is just because they don't get paid enough to afford it in the first place, so it never develops as a habit.
I spent twenty bucks on alcohol in 2024. That was the first alcohol I had purchased since 2018. Gen X here.
Fellow GenX here. A bottle of Jameson's was $20 just 2 years ago. Now it's $30. I only ever buy it on mega sale. Can't really afford to drink it that often, so I save it for special occasions. $10 more may not sound like a lot to some but to me it's the cost of dinner for 2 nights.
Money
I'm surprised millennials didn't kick that habit. But it was bound to happen. Alcohol doesn't taste like something good at all.
I'm wondering how this is calculated? Is the data tracked by IDs scanned and birthdays entered at registers?
Gen Zs grew up watching all kinds of messages about drinking and driving, probably saw relatives screw up their lives with DUIs. Going out to drink isn't an attractive idea.
Gen Zs are the generation with the least acces to decent wages, and alcohol in restaurants and bars has become extremely expensive. Going out drinking costs way too much.
Weed is easily available, and far cheaper. You can easily blow $50 in a bar in one evening, while $50 can buy enough weed for a week, and you won't be waking up hungover every morning.
It's not just Gen Z, I'm an old guy, and I don't like to drink when I go out. I might have a beer with dinner, but never more than one. I'd never drink more than a couple and drive home. You can get a DUI even if you aren't feeling the effects, and I can't deal with that. I'll just drink at home.
Can't speak for them Zoomers in the US, but my guess would be that Corona is responsible for the sharp decline. Most of GenZ reached drinking age around that time and boozing alone is by far not as fun as in a group.
I suspect it has to do with what their primary activities are. Perhaps they're spending less time in groups and more time isolated, communicating digitally.
If can either get a bottle of wine or a bottle of pom juice. I'm going with the pom juice.
Gen Z spent it all on avocado toast, so they'll have to make due with Olde English "800"
Two hands, taped to each. A wild night for sure