While younger generations are drinking less, adults aged 50 to 64 are drinking more, causing a shift reshaping the US bar scene
Alcohol consumption has decreased across the United States in recent years, particularly among adults under age 40, but there is one older demographic in which more people are drinking than before the Covid-19 pandemic – and more are doing so heavily, according to a new study.
For the first time since before the pandemic, the percentage of US adults who drink any alcohol decreased between 2022 and 2024, according to the report in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. People from 50 to 64, which roughly corresponds with gen X, were the only age group in which drinking continued to increase.
They are likely hurting their health by imbibing, according to the latest science, but they are also helping keep open bars. Such businesses have struggled as younger generations, the drivers of nightlife, move away from booze.
It’s funny you say they can hold their liquor better now. I’m in my early 40s and I used to drink excessively in my 20s. Now, I feel like just looking at a glass of wine gives me a hangover 😅
I cut back a lot in my early 30s and now I’m down to a couple of cocktails in the summer months. There are really excellent mocktails in grocery stores nowadays, it makes it so much easier to still enjoy the flavors.
What I mean by that is that it seems less like the sprint till you blackout drinkingof their youth, and more the “I’m always tipsy” ultramarathon.