Dive Brief:
- Generation Z now drinks about as much alcohol as the rest of the legal drinking age population, according to a new report from IWSR, shifting the prevailing narrative that younger consumers are opting out of booze.
- The report from IWSR, a leading data provider for the alcohol industry, found that the drinking rate among legal age Gen Zers was 74%, up from 66% three years ago. That's in line with the overall drinking rate of 76% among the entire adult population.
- Baby Boomers saw the biggest decline in alcohol consumption with a 71% drinking rate, a two percentage-point drop from three years ago, the report said. While some of this is to be expected with age, IWSR said the decrease was bigger than expected.
Dive Insight:
Gen Z and young drinkers were seen as one of the primary drags on alcohol consumption, which has reached a record low and prompted alcohol companies to diversify their offerings. However, IWSR's most recent data shows that moderation spans across generations and isn't specific to Gen Z.
“The narrative that Gen Z is the generation of moderation is now conclusively debunked,” Marten Lodewijks, IWSR president and managing director, said in a statement. “While Gen Z consumers are creating new patterns for engaging with beverage alcohol, the evidence demonstrates that Gen Z consumers enjoy drinking at roughly the same levels as the rest of society.”
The findings were part of IWSR’s twice-annual Bevtrac study, which measures consumer behavior in the alcohol segment.
Alcohol companies have been able to appeal to younger drinkers through ready-to-drink cocktails and more options for high- or low-alcohol drinks, appealing to a wider variety of occasions.
Gen Z currently accounts for 17% of the total drinking population, according to IWSR. Gen Zers drank more cocktails than any other generation, with 84% reporting they had one in the past six months. Gen Z is also the most likely to drink with other people or in large groups, with IWSR finding 18% of people drank with five or more people on their last occasion.
Across generations, moderation is now the norm, the report found, with a majority of drinkers choosing to drink less. Consumers now have on average 3.9 drinks per occasion, as opposed to 4.4 drinks reported in 2024 and 2025.
While Gen Z is now drinking at roughly the same rate as the rest of the population, the cohort does have an outsized focus on health and wellness. IWSR’s report found that 49% of Gen Z respondents are most likely to heed government health guidance around alcohol.
While Gen Z and Boomers saw changes in alcohol consumption, Millennials and Generation X continue to have the highest drinking rates, at 81% and 77%, respectively.
“The number of people drinking remains consistent, but the frequency with which we drink and the amount we drink per occasion is dropping,” Lodewijks said. “The moderation trend increasingly appears to be driven by lifestyle choices, resulting in a structural, rather than cyclical, change.”
