Inside Life

Why are Gen Z drinking less alcohol than older generations?

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Research has proven that most of the Gen Z folk are turning away from alcohol, holding it down as the generation consuming far less beer and booze right now.

Only 20% of college students abstained from alcohol in 2002; from recent findings, that number climbed up to 28% in 2018.

The ones not in college? Nowhere to be found near those bottles of liquor. Nearly 30% of them, unlike the 24% in 2002, reported in 2018 that they did not drink beer, wine or even spirits.

By 2022, 25% of young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 reported not having had any alcoholic drink in the past year — the highest proportion seen across any adult age group.

What are the likely reasons for this?

Each person would have their own unique reason, but experts seem to agree on three major factors responsible for the developing trend.

1. Exposure to mental health awareness

Young adults today are more aware of mental health struggles than folks of older generations. That appears to be stopping them from turning to alcohol to “drown all their sorrows”.

In the past, people thought visiting the shrink or expressing feelings was a sign of weakness and would rather drink their pain away.

A shift has occured recently.

With the spread of information and social media offering freedom of expression, many young people have the option of abstaining from alcohol and choosing to understand the root cause of certain emotions.

2. Healthier alternatives

Many Gen Z adults are inundated with healthier options to typical lifestyle choices like drinking now than ever before.

Smoothie packages, juice recipes: these are all designed to replace drinking as we know it.

This generation wants to (and can afford to) live healthy and “clean” and so they ditch the bottles their parents held dear.

3. Substituting alcohol with cannabis

It’s not all pleasant, though.

More research has found that the drop in alcohol consumption did not cause a similar decline in cannabis use — it even shows a rise.

This points us in another direction: young adults may be drinking less but using cannabis to deal with daily stressors, anxiety or depression.

There’s a warning, however

Not all of the Gen Z adults are abstaining from alcohol. Reports have it that binge drinking remains a problem.

When men have five or more drinks on a single occasion, it is known as binge drinking.

For women, it is four or more drinks at a time.

This poses huge health concerns for the group, with a projected rise in alcoholic hepatitis cases in the near future.

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