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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Politics
Eric Berger in New York

Gen X is drinking more as younger Americans cut back on alcohol, study finds

bottles of alcohol
‘I don’t think it’s a bad thing that [younger adults] are not drinking. I just think that for our business model and for others like us, it’s really difficult to maintain that same level of operation when you don’t have the income to support it.’ Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

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.

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