While younger generations are drinking less, adults aged 50 to 64 are drinking more, causing a shift reshaping the US bar scene
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.
They are likely hurting their health by imbibing, according to the latest science, but they are also helping keep open bars. Such businesses have struggled as younger generations, the drivers of nightlife, move away from booze.



You aren’t rambling. And good on you for saying no to the colonoscopy. You are absolutely correct. My mom never really learned the rules I figured out. She’d challenge him on asking who she was. Because sometimes he’d forget. It really upset her, which I get. The challenge upset him and that would lead to things going downhill. I don’t think he necessarily knew who she was or I was specifically, but he knew that we were important to him. And honestly that’s all that mattered. Stay strong, take breaks, take turns with family. It will be difficult. Don’t wear yourself out.