Lots of Londoners used to be mostly drunk by this point in January. But not so much in 2025, it seems. Amid a record Dry January — with 15.5 million people set to complete a month of being alcohol-free — many of us are trying something that’s historically not been very British: drinking in moderation.
And it’s younger people who are leading the charge according to new research, which states that nearly 50 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 are sober. While so many of us had misspent youths sneaking booze on park benches, Gen Z in particular are far more sensible, avoiding drinking from the off. The chief executive of Rekom, the UK’s largest nightclub operator, has blamed the drop in Gen Z’s alcohol consumption, and their unwillingness to go out during the week, for the closure of 17 of their venues. Numerous UK universities now have “sober societies”, eschewing bar crawls for games nights and coffee shop crawls instead.
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