Gen Z is off the wagon: People in their 20s are now drinking as much as older generations

Gen Z is drinking more cocktails than any other generation

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Gen Z , once heralded for their sobriety, is actually drinking about as much as everyone else , according to a new study.

Those born between the years 1997 and 2012 were touted for being "sober curious" or less likely to drink than other American adults . But according to IWSR, a company that provides data for the alcohol industry, the drinking rate for legal-age Gen Zers is 74 percent - up from 66 percent in 2023.

The drinking rate for U.S. adults is 76 percent overall, putting Gen Z largely in step with the rest of the pack. The data was collected as part of IWSR's Bevtrac report , which studies trends among alcohol consumers.

“The narrative that Gen Z is the generation of moderation is now conclusively debunked,” Marten Lodewijks, IWSR’s president and managing director, said.

“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.”

That's good news for the alcohol industry as Gen Z makes up approximately 17 percent of the legal-age drinking population.

Alcohol producers have found new ways to market their products to Gen Z.

White Claw leaned away from marketing specifically to men and became one of the most popular seltzers on the market, especially among Gen Z . Buzzballz, which sells brightly colored cocktails in round containers, is also popular among Gen Z, The Spirits Business reports.

While millennials are often associated with the wave of craft beer and breweries that swept the U.S. in the past 20 years, Gen Z appears to love cocktails. According to the IWSR report, Gen Zers drank more cocktails than any other generation, with 84 percent of respondents saying they'd had at least one cocktail in the past six months.

Gen Z, sometimes unfairly maligned as being glued to their cellphones and social media, is also the most likely to go have a drink with a large group of people. The study found that 18 percent of Gen Z respondents said they'd had drinks with five or more people at their last outing.

Despite the fact that Gen Z aren't teetotalers, they are part of a broader move toward moderation that IWSR says is fairly consistent across the U.S. adult population. The report found that drinkers are having 3.9 drinks per outing on average, which is down from 4.4 drinks in its 2024 and 2025 reports.

“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.”

That move toward moderation was especially notable among the Baby Boomers. The Boomers' drinking rate is 71 percent, which is down two percentage points since 2023. The company said it expected some decline in the drinking rate due to age but noted that the drop did exceed its expectations.

Older adults are still driving alcohol sales in the U.S. Millennials' drinking rate is 81 percent, and Gen X's drinking rate is 77 percent.

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