Alcohol consumption is decreasing in some countries, but the global picture is more complicated than the headlines suggest. In the United States, per capita alcohol consumption fell 1.2% between 2022 and 2023, dropping from 2.51 to 2.48 gallons of pure ethanol per person. That decline showed up in 41 states and the District of Columbia. But the trend isn’t universal, and what people are drinking is shifting in ways that matter as much as how much.
What U.S. Drinking Data Actually Shows
The most recent surveillance data from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism confirms a modest but real decline in overall U.S. alcohol consumption. The drop is being driven almost entirely by reductions in beer and wine. Spirits consumption, meanwhile, continues to climb. So Americans aren’t uniformly drinking less of everything. They’re drinking less beer and wine while reaching for more cocktails, spirits-based seltzers, and ready-to-drink mixed drinks.
Retail purchasing data tells a similar story. In 2023, only 25% of a major consumer panel purchased beer, wine, and spirits, down from the previous year. The share of consumers who only drank wine fell to 12.6%. At the same time, the percentage of people combining spirits with either beer or wine edged up. The overall pie is shrinking slightly, but the slices are being rearranged.
Europe: Heavy Drinking With Uneven Progress
Europe remains the heaviest-drinking region in the world. Adults in the WHO European Region consume an average of 9.2 liters of pure alcohol per year. That figure has come down over the past decade, but the progress is concentrated in a handful of large countries. Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine account for most of the regional decline, largely because those governments raised alcohol taxes and restricted where and when alcohol could be sold.
In EU countries, the picture is essentially flat. There have been no significant changes in alcohol consumption levels for over a decade. Countries like France, Germany, and Spain haven’t seen the kind of drops that shift the regional average. So while Europe’s overall numbers look like they’re improving, most Western European nations are holding steady rather than cutting back.
Who Is Driving the Decline
The most visible shift is generational. Younger adults are drinking less than previous generations did at the same age, a pattern that shows up across surveys in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. Health consciousness plays a role, but it’s not the only factor. Cost matters too: mid-price and value-price spirits saw steep declines of around 20% and 15% respectively in recent sales data, suggesting that price-sensitive drinkers are pulling back or switching categories entirely.
The non-alcoholic beverage market reflects this shift in real time. Off-premise sales of non-alcoholic drinks hit $823 million in the U.S. for the year ending December 2024, a 27.2% jump from the year before. Non-alcoholic beer is projected to grow at 8% annually through 2029. No-alcohol spirits have grown even faster, with a five-year compound annual growth rate exceeding 60% through 2024. The overall no-alcohol category grew 20% in volume in 2023 alone and is projected to keep expanding at roughly 17% per year through 2028.
These aren’t niche products anymore. The U.S. non-alcoholic market is expected to grow at 18% per year in volume through 2028, fueled by a widening range of subcategories and new consumers who aren’t necessarily teetotalers. Many buyers of non-alcoholic beer and spirits also purchase regular alcohol. They’re moderating, not abstaining.
Beer and Wine Are Losing, Spirits Are Winning
Within the alcoholic beverage market, the category shifts are dramatic. Beer has been losing volume for years, and wine is now following the same downward path. Malt-based hard seltzers, which exploded in popularity around 2020, are also fading. The growth is concentrated in spirits-based seltzers, ready-to-drink cocktails, and flavored malt beverages. Consumers are gravitating toward convenience and variety over traditional formats.
This means the “decline” in alcohol consumption comes with a caveat. People may be buying fewer total drinks, but the drinks they are buying tend to have higher alcohol content than beer. A shift from beer to cocktails or spirits doesn’t necessarily translate to less alcohol entering the body, even if the number of servings goes down.
The Global Target and How Far Away It Is
The WHO’s Global Alcohol Action Plan set a target of reducing harmful alcohol use by 20% between 2010 and 2030. Progress toward that goal has been described by researchers in The Lancet as “insufficient.” The countries making real headway tend to share common policy moves: higher excise taxes, tighter restrictions on availability, and limits on alcohol marketing. Countries relying on voluntary industry guidelines or public awareness campaigns alone have seen little change.
The gap between perception and reality is worth noting. Media coverage of “sober curious” culture and booming non-alcoholic sales can make it feel like the world is turning away from alcohol. The data tells a more nuanced story. Some populations are drinking meaningfully less. Others haven’t budged. And the global alcohol industry still generates hundreds of billions in revenue annually, with volume growth continuing in parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. The trend is real but uneven, and far from the kind of sweeping cultural shift it’s sometimes made out to be.