A recent Gallup poll has revealed that alcohol consumption in the United States has reached a record low in nearly a century, with only 54% of the country reporting that they drink.
The data is consistent with other research, including Monitoring the Future’s national substance abuse poll that found a drastically reduced interest in alcohol among students from 1975 to 2025.
The subcategories of the Gallup poll revealed several bits of interesting information:
- Women were more likely to quit drinking than men, with an 11% drop in drinking rates since 2023, compared to a 5% drop in men.
- White adults were more likely to quit drinking than adults of color, with an 11% drop in drinking rates since 2023, compared to a 2% drop in people of color.
- From 2023 to 2025, the largest declines in drinking rates were among people earning less than $40,000 per year, with a 14% drop, and those earning $100,000 or more per year, with a 13% drop. In contrast, drinking rates among those earning between $40,000 and $99,999 fell by only 4%
- Younger generations were more likely to quit drinking than older generations, with a 9% drop in adults ages 18-34 and a 10% drop in adults ages 35-54, compared to a 5% drop in adults 55 and older.
- From 2023 to 2025, Republicans had a 19% drop in drinking rates, compared to a 6% drop among Independents and a 3% drop among Democrats.
It’s this latter statistic that Stu Burguiere, BlazeTV host of “Stu Does America,” is most fascinated by.
His theory is that conservatives’ massive drop in drinking rates has a lot to do with the pressure to take the experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The anti-vaccine resistance largely fueled MAHA and ignited a movement of distrust in health institutions. Couple that with the new studies coming out that challenge the outdated advice that moderate drinking is safe, maybe even healthy, and perhaps that’s why Republicans are ditching the bottle in droves.
Stu’s theory seems to be consistent with the subcategory of the Gallup poll that assessed people’s perception of alcohol’s impact on health. All three categories showed a rising trend in the percentage of people who believe alcohol is harmful to health. From 2001 to 2025, people who said alcohol makes no difference on health decreased from 46% to a record low of 37%; people who said alcohol is good for health decreased from 22% to a record low of 6%; and people who said alcohol is bad for health increased from 27% to a record high of 53%.
It was also found that young people ages 18-34 were more likely to view alcohol negatively, with 66% reporting it’s bad for health, compared to 50% of adults ages 35-54 and 48% of adults ages 55 and up.
The poll also found that drinkers are consuming less alcohol. The report found that the average number of drinks per week has fallen to 2.8 — the lowest rate since 1996.
Stu is encouraged by these statistics. Not only is this good news for public health, it’s also good news for the culture when it comes to things like graduation rates, unwanted pregnancies, domestic violence, and reduced DUIs and accidents.
“The fact that kids and young adults are choosing to drink less, having fewer drinks, is a real positive thing,” he says.
To hear more about the Gallup poll’s findings and more of Stu’s analysis, watch the episode above.
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