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.
One of my Gen-X friends was telling me how he started drinking more during COVID.
He said one day the supermarket cashier remarked “oh hey, are you throwing a party?”
And he said “nope, this is just my personal weekly alcohol consumption.”
Awkward!
They are likely hurting their health by imbibing, according to the latest science,
This must be emphasized more. The WHO has made a statement that for usual alcoholic beverages no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health. This happened after carefully analysing a large body of research. Much earlier, alcohol has already been assigned to the highest class of carcinogenic substances, class 1. It sits in the same class as radiation, tobacco and asbestos.
There is alcohol in lots of food including bread. Your liver is quite capable of handling alcohol.
And yet a lot of centenarians have their cocktails before bed. I think it must be the binge drinking that really hurts you. Or maybe the not going to bars and getting diseases from other drinkers part?
Stop framing it around desire to drink, it’s wealth ffs!
Well yeah, Gen X is now the generation of the Bosses. The boomers are retiring, and Gen X fills the gap. So they now have the money to throw around. Whereas anyone younger can’t afford shit.
thats why Alochol industry is so afraid of WEED and GLP-1, especially the glp-1 like ozempic and semiglutide. i think milleneals are half and half, some drinked a ton, while another never touched or barely.
Im an Xer who rarely drinks in adult life but I can say that I have been wanting to drink more since about 2016 and much more since 2024.
MDMA has always been better value. Now even more so.
Mescaline micro dosing helped me!
I virtually quit drinking in 2018. Went six years with out a drink of any alcohol. Lately I drink a few in social situations but not very often.
Hah, not this genx. 51 on dialysis for kidney failutre (fuck fascism) so I took my habit of hardly drinking down to no drinking.
Oof gl fellow lemming gl.
Nobody is lining up for the $14 six pack at the grocery store. I’m not exaggerating, I’ve even cut back simply because I can’t justify the cost. I’m not paying a %50 increase for the same beer I bought six years ago.
$14 six pack is a bargain here. Most 4 packs are $25 in Australia. Steak night at the pub is strange as your beer costs more than your steak.
It’s not. In comparison it’s about the same. The local minimum wage here is about $15, and federal is an astounding $7.25 where as yours is around $25. I’m just using the figures to say either way you have to work for at least an hour to get beer. A four pack of
niceactual beer is $20-25 or more if you like the higher end stuff like the 120 minute IPA it’s $40 for a four pack. I just drink trash now.Mate me too, I only buy cartoons (24packs) of the cheap stuff. Smithys was on sale yesterday for $50 so that’s the poison this week.
Isn’t meat production heavily subsidized by the government because corruption?
Don’t know about that. I know that when I have a steak I’ll usually have a few beers and they make their money back. The steak is just a loss leader.
excuse me, what the fuck
i assume you meant the Min wage, yes its that low been for many decades. neither party in the us wants to change it significantly. some states have did thier own increases, but its not enough because COL.
I switched to hard liquor, much cheaper
I partially did. A bottle of cheap swill costs as much as a beer at a restaurant or pub.
Yep, I fully agree
They’re at that age range where their house should be paid off by now, allowing them to have a few beers at a restaurant without maxing out their credit card.
Not mentioned in the article: 20- and 30-somethings are broke, and a night out is crazy expensive now. Plus legal weed is waaaay cheaper than alcohol.
This was my argument for a long time. For 25 I get 12 that’ll last me a night IF I don’t share. 25 of weed will get you 3 days if you just smoke j. Plus the whole not becoming a degen that makes bad choices is a plus.
not sure about that last part
plus weed psychosis is real
ehhh if you’re a PBR enjoyer $12 for a 12-pack is hard to beat. I like my weed, but it ain’t $12 cheap yet here
Bummer to hear. $20 a quarter oz here lasts me longer than two twelve packs, so a little more affordable. It’s definitely not topshelf weed, but PBR isn’t primo either. I’m in cali though where the weed market has collapsed due to oversaturation and over regulation.
Yeah, I only go out on occasions.
As a millennial I’m tired and I think many millennials and younger GenXers feel the same. We’ve had to live what seems like multiple generations within our lifetime. We went from like 3 channel tv to cable tv to satellite tv to streaming tv. we went from dial up phones to cell phones to smart phones. we went from having no computer, to a computer, to a laptop, tablet, and screens on everything. we went from no internet to dial up to cable to wifi. We went from being told that we need to learn this and that in school or we won’t get a job. that we needed to learn all this maths cause we’ll never have a calculator in our pocket to carry around. having to write cursive cause thats how we’ll always write in the future. that we MUST go to college in order to get a job to suddenly it no longer matters and we’re in debt up to our eyeballs.
We had to teach our parents all this crap and now we also have to teach the younger generations the same stuff too.
We went from everyone we know having a house by the time they were our age to now we have to keep paying rent or live with roommates.
We’re tired, let us have a drink.
Advances in personal technology and having had to learn cursive are not high on the list of things making me tired. You need to raise your exhaustion game.
you forgot to mention, that the constant nagging for not having your career, or sitll living at home, sitll doing min wage, still not achieve this or that and pretty much ignoring why the HCOL so high. even from other more succesful millennials(they act like boomer sometimes)
Yeah, I would not have damaged my body irreparably by sitting and studying through 3 STEM degrees had I known that job security would never come. I should have just worked at gas stations so at least I know jobs were always there, even if the cash was shit. My job pays well, but not worth being told it will be over soon every 5 minutes. I’m over it. So tired.
I feel you man. Shit has been crazy fast and it’s still accelerating. What a fucking life we have.
Uh…. I guess I’m in the minority. 39 and drinking a box of wine (4 bottles) in a weekend with my partner and their other drinks may be involved + a gummy.
Effect meet cause.
I swear to god both of my non-drinking kids make me want to drink more.
