A record number of Americans are drinking, according to a new Gallup poll released this week. Only 54% of Americans said they consume alcohol.
Gallup has been tracking American drinking behavior since 1939, and their views on the health effects of drinking since 2001. For the first time, the majority of Americans (53%) said that moderate drinking, defined as one or two drinks a day, is bad for your health.
“This is a message that we have long advocated in public health,” said Dr. Katherine Keys, an epidemiologist at Columbia University who studies alcohol consumption trends. “And it’s certainly encouraging to see that message really seems to permeate the American people.”
Even among drinkers, polls found that people also drink less. A record 24% of drinkers said they had a drink in the last 24 hours, while 40% said they had been drinking more than a week since the last time they were absorbed. The vote took place in July.
Alcohol consumption has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic and has recently begun to decline. It is unclear whether changing attitudes promote changes in drinking, but this declines across age groups. Gen Z is a lesser drink than older generations, but adults aged 35 to 54 have reduced five points since 2023 for those over 55.
Health risks have led to an increasing number of evidence for alcohol consumption, denies decades of perception that moderate drinking could be beneficial to health.
On Thursday, the American Heart Association and the American School of Cardiology released updated blood pressure guidelines that encourage people to refrain from alcohol, rather than recommending men to two drinks a day and women to one drink. And earlier this year, former US surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that alcohol consumption could increase the risk of cancer and sought the latest health warning labels on alcoholic beverages.
Federal officials are now reviewing years of advice on alcohol consumption in Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a policy document that sets nutritional standards for everything from school lunches to public health messaging. The current guidelines have been the same since 1990.
For the 2025-2030 cycle, the Guidelines Advisory Committee declined to review recommendations on alcohol consumption and instead postponed it to two separate evidence reviews. One was led by the Ministry of Health and Human Services, and the other was led by national scholars in science, engineering and medicine. Both reports concluded that higher levels of alcohol consumption are associated with an increased risk of certain types of cancer, but stopped recommending specific intake restriction.
USDA and HHS guidelines are expected to be released by the end of the year. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to release simpler, slimmer dietary guidelines well before the deadline.
“Indeed, the scientific evidence we have would support lowering the recommended alcohol intake for Americans below what we currently do. Whether dietary guidelines will shift to reflect the science we see,” Keys said.
