New consumer research from Datassential quantifies the ongoing decline in American drinking. The share of adults who drink at least a few times per year has fallen by six percent, one in five drinkers now says they skip alcohol more often when they go out, and happy hour participation is dropping even among Gen X and Boomers.
The reasons are more practical than the wellness narrative suggests. More than two-thirds of drinkers say alcoholic beverages have become noticeably more expensive, and a third cite price as their main reason for cutting back. Health mindfulness ranks second. A large cannabis effect is also visible in the data: nearly forty percent of drinkers use THC or CBD products, and most of them say it directly reduces how often they drink.
Gen Z remains the leading edge, with nearly half planning to reduce their alcohol consumption. On the replacement side, functional sodas top the awareness charts at 66 percent, followed by low-alcohol cocktails, tea-based drinks, and mood-focused non-alcoholic beverages.
The Cr(af)ted Take
The price finding deserves more attention than it gets. The industry loves the wellness story, but a third of people cutting back are doing it because a night of drinks costs what dinner used to. That reframes the AF cocktail at home: it is not just the healthier option, it is dramatically the cheaper one. A bottle of AF spirit makes fifteen drinks for the price of three at a bar.
The other signal worth holding onto is that this is now everyone's behavior, not a Gen Z quirk. When Boomers are skipping happy hour and a fifth of all drinkers regularly order without alcohol, hosting well means having a genuinely good AF option ready. Not as an accommodation. As a default.
Original reporting: Datassential →