Americans are drinking less for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to a new study, though overall alcohol consumption levels remain higher than they were before the pandemic, with one specific age group continuing to move in the opposite direction of the broader national trend.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 114,000 U.S. adults collected through the National Health Interview Survey and found that any reported alcohol use declined by almost 2% between 2022 and 2024, while heavy drinking fell by more than 8% over the same period. The findings were published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The decline was not evenly distributed across age groups. Gen Z adults recorded the largest overall drop in any alcohol consumption, with a decline of roughly 5% during the study period, while millennials saw a steeper 17% drop specifically in heavy drinking rates over the same two years.

Not every generation followed that downward pattern. Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 continued drinking at levels higher than before the pandemic, according to the study. That age group's overall alcohol consumption increased by nearly 4%, while heavy drinking within the group rose by 36% between 2018 and 2024, a sharp divergence from........

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