New figures show US households spent just 0.77 percent of their expenditures on alcohol in 2025, the lowest share on record, averaging about $630 for the year. This is not a survey of intentions or a poll about Dry January; it is what people actually did with their money, measured across the whole country, and the direction is unmistakable.
A single year is a data point, but the trend line behind it is years long and consistent. Volumes are down, the share of wallet is down, and the decline cuts across the categories that once seemed immune. When a spending share hits an all-time low, it reflects a durable change in habit rather than a passing mood, because households adjust what they buy slowly and then stick with it.
The Cr(af)ted Take
This is the number to keep in your back pocket, because it settles the argument the softer trend stories leave open. People are not just saying they want to drink less. They are spending less on alcohol than at any point we have a record for, and that money does not vanish. It moves to whatever occupies the same moments: the better soda, the functional drink, the alcohol-free beer, the zero-proof cocktail that still makes the evening feel like something.
For anyone building in this space, that reallocation is the whole opportunity. The dollars leaving the liquor shelf are looking for a new home, and they will land wherever the alcohol-free option is actually good enough to be worth paying for. The record low is not a story about decline. It is a map of where the next spending is going, for the people ready to meet it with something worth the price.
Original reporting: Livemint →