Why many Americans are rethinking alcohol, according to a new Gallup
poll
[August 14, 2025]
By LINLEY SANDERS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans are reporting that they drink alcohol
amid a growing belief that even moderate alcohol consumption is a health
risk, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.
A record high percentage of U.S. adults, 53%, now say moderate drinking
is bad for their health, up from 28% in 2015. The uptick in doubt about
alcohol’s benefits is largely driven by young adults — the age group
that is most likely to believe drinking “one or two drinks a day” can
cause health hazards — but older adults are also now increasingly likely
to think moderate drinking carries risks.
As concerns about health impacts rise, fewer Americans are reporting
that they drink. The survey finds that 54% of U.S. adults say they drink
alcoholic beverages such as liquor, wine or beer. That’s lower than at
any other point in the past three decades.
The findings of the poll, which was conducted in July, indicate that
after years of many believing that moderate drinking was harmless — or
even beneficial — worries about alcohol consumption are taking hold.
According to Gallup’s data, even those who consume alcohol are drinking
less.
The federal government is updating new dietary guidelines, including
those around alcohol. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, government data
showed U.S. alcohol consumption was trending up. But other government
surveys have shown a decline in certain types of drinking, particularly
among teenagers and young adults.
This comes alongside a new drumbeat of information about alcohol’s
risks. While moderate drinking was once thought to have benefits for
heart health, health professionals in recent years have pointed to
overwhelming evidence that alcohol consumption leads to negative health
outcomes and is a leading cause of cancer.
Growing skepticism about alcohol’s benefits
Younger adults have been quicker than older Americans to accept that
drinking is harmful, but older adults are coming around to the same
view.
About two-thirds of 18- to 34-year-olds believe moderate drinking is
unhealthy, according to the poll, up from about 4 in 10 in 2015. Older
adults are less likely to see alcohol as harmful — about half of
Americans age 55 or older believe this — but that’s a substantial
increase, too. In 2015, only about 2 in 10 adults age 55 or older
thought alcohol was bad for their health.
In the past, moderate drinking was thought to have some benefits. That
idea came from imperfect studies that largely didn’t include younger
people and couldn’t prove cause and effect. Now the scientific consensus
has shifted, and several countries recently lowered their alcohol
consumption recommendations. Earlier this year, the outgoing U.S.
surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, recommended a label on bottles of beer,
wine and liquor that would clearly outline the link between alcohol
consumption and cancer.
The federal government’s current dietary guidelines recommend Americans
not drink or, if they do consume alcohol, men should limit themselves to
two drinks a day or fewer while women should stick to one or fewer.
Gallup’s director of U.S. social research, Lydia Saad, said shifting
health advice throughout older Americans’ lives may be a reason they
have been more gradual than young adults to recognize alcohol as
harmful.
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Cases of beer are stacked in a Milwaukee liquor store on Nov. 8,
2018. (AP Photo/Ivan Moreno, File)
 “Older folks may be a little more
hardened in terms of the whiplash that they get with
recommendations,” Saad said. “It may take them a little longer to
absorb or accept the information. Whereas, for young folks, this is
the environment that they’ve grown up in ... in many cases, it would
be the first thing young adults would have heard as they were coming
into adulthood.”
The government is expected to release new guidelines later this
year, under the directive of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,
who has promised big changes. Kennedy has not hinted at how the
alcohol recommendations may shift.
Drinking rates fall to decade low
Slightly more than half of Americans, 54%, report that they drink
alcohol — a low in Gallup’s data that is especially pronounced among
women and young adults.
Young Americans’ alcohol consumption has been trending downward for
years, accelerating the overall decline in alcohol consumption. In
sharp contrast with Gallup’s findings two decades ago, when young
adults were likeliest to report drinking, young adults' drinking
rate is now slightly below middle-aged and older adults.
Americans’ reported drinking is among the lowest since the question
was first asked in 1939. For most of the last few decades, at least
6 in 10 Americans have reported drinking alcoholic beverages, only
dipping below that point a few times in the question’s history.
Americans who drink alcohol are consuming less
Even if concerns about health risks aren’t causing some adults to
give up alcohol entirely, these worries could be influencing how
often they drink.
The survey found that adults who think moderate drinking is bad for
one’s health are just as likely as people who don't share those
concerns to report that they drink, but fewer of the people with
health worries had consumed alcohol recently.
About half of those who worry moderate drinking is unhealthy said
they had a drink in the previous week, compared with about 7 in 10
who did not think drinking was bad for their health.
Overall, only about one-quarter of Americans who drink said they had
consumed alcohol in the prior 24 hours, a record low in the survey.
Roughly 4 in 10 said that it had been more than a week since they
had poured a drink.
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Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.
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