More Americans view alcohol consumption as unhealthy – survey

A recent survey by US analytics firm Gallup showed that 45% of Americans think drinking one or two alcoholic beverages per day is bad for one’s health. This marks a six-percentage-point increase since the survey last year and a 17-point increase since the prior reading in 2018.

Meanwhile, 43% of US citizens do not think moderate drinking makes any difference to one’s health, while 8% believe it has a positive effect. Both of these readings are the lowest on record, Gallup said.

The firm noted that between 2001 and 2018, Americans were “much more likely to believe moderate drinking does not affect overall health than to say it has a negative or positive effect”.

Gallup also asked Americans their opinion of the best health advice for a person who drinks “an average amount of alcohol”. It found that 55% of US adults said the best advice for such drinkers is to reduce the amount they drink, while 22% said they should stop drinking alcohol altogether. Around 17% said continuing to drink an average amount is the best advice.

The share of young adults drinking alcohol is also on a downward trend, according to the poll. An average of 59% of adults aged 18 to 34 said they consumed alcohol, according to Gallup’s aggregated data between 2021 and 2024. This is lower than the average of 65% of young adults who said they drank alcohol between 2016 and 2019, the data showed.

The results are based on Gallup’s Consumption Habits poll conducted between 1 and 21 July among 1,010 US adults.

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