Cheers? Americans – Especially Republicans – Are Drinking Less

August 17, 2025 1

Health over happy hour: Wellness trends are driving a record decline in alcohol use.

If President Donald Trump serves out his full second term, the country will have been governed by a non-drinker for 20 of my 55 years – 32 if you count Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton’s reported tendency to abstain except at ceremonial functions.

Trump and former President Joe Biden don’t have a lot in common. But they both shun booze.

How did I get on this train of thought? The venerable Gallup public opinion polling company is out with new data showing record-low drinking among Americans, powered by a rise in concerns that even moderate tippling is bad for your health.

Just 54% of Americans say they consume alcohol – one percentage point lower than the previous record, set in 1958. It’s down sharply in recent years, as 67% reported some alcohol usage in 2022. Gallup has been asking its somewhat stilted question, “Do you have occasion to use alcoholic beverages such as liquor, wine or beer or are you a total abstainer?” for nearly 90 years.

D.C. Runs on Drinks

The decline will be news in Washington, D.C., where “getting drinks” is a big part of the reporter-official courtship dance. I have learned a lot about policy and politics over martinis and other cocktails (or wine or beer) over the past three decades.

And no, it wasn’t because my sources got drooling drunk and slurred national security secrets to me. It was because you talk about almost anything other than politics over drinks – family, sports, life goals, etc. That builds trust.

It’s such an accepted-bordering-on-required feature of socializing in what I will call Political D.C. that President George W. Bush, himself a teetotaller after age 40, served reporters beer and wine when he hosted us at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

What’s Striking Here

There are two things that jumped out at me in the latest Gallup poll. One is that the record high “yes” was 71%, in 1976-1978. I would have thought cocktail culture would have pushed the 1950s to the top spot. I was wrong.

But the second phenomenon bears closer scrutiny in a politics newsletter like this one.

Drinking by Democrats has fallen just three percentage points, from 64% to 61%. Among independents, the slide is six percentage points, from 61% to 55%.

But among Republicans, the number who say they consume alcohol has plummeted 19 percentage points since 2023, from 65% to 46%. Gallup does not decode why the Grand Old Party seems to be much less in party mode, though we could conjecture Democrats might have had more reasons to soothe their nerves in recent years.

The Health Factor

Gallup attributes the decline to sharply rising perceptions that even moderate drinking is bad for your health.

For the first time, a majority of Americans (53%) say one or two drinks a day has deleterious health effects. Thirty-seven percent say it makes no difference. And just 6% say it’s good for you.

The number saying moderate drinking is bad has spiked recently. It was 28% in 2018, 39% in 2023, and 45% a year ago. That’s a big shift from 2001-2011, when the “it’s unhealthy” and “it’s healthy” camps were both around 25%, according to Gallup.

Younger Americans appear to be driving that phenomenon, with 66% now saying even moderate drinking is bad, compared to 50% of those ages 35-54 and 48% of folks 55 and older.

Interestingly, given the drop in GOP imbibing, Republicans are the least likely to agree drinking is unhealthy, at 44%, compared to 58% of Democrats and 55% of independents.

Uh, “cheers”?

Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/u-s-news-decision-points/articles/2025-08-14/cheers-americans-especially-republicans-are-drinking-less

Written by: Joshua Stuart

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