About two-thirds of American adults drink alcohol in a given year, though the number who drink in any particular month is lower. In 2018, 66.3% of adults aged 18 and older reported consuming alcohol in the past year, according to CDC data. More recent polling from Gallup found that 58% of U.S. adults said they had “occasion to use alcoholic beverages” in 2024, a notable drop from 62% just a year earlier and the lowest level since 1996.
How Many Americans Drink Regularly
The gap between “ever drinks” and “drinks regularly” is significant. While roughly six in ten adults identify as drinkers, far fewer drink on any given day. The share of Americans who reported drinking within the last 24 hours fell from 34% in 2021 to 28% in 2024. The average number of monthly drinking occasions also dropped 13% over the past decade, from 12.2 in 2013 to 10.6 in 2024.
These numbers suggest a slow but real shift. Fewer Americans are drinking overall, and those who do drink are doing it less often than they were even a few years ago.
Young Adults Drink Less Than You’d Expect
Among 18- to 25-year-olds, 47.5% reported drinking in the past month, based on the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That’s lower than the general adult population, which may surprise anyone who associates college life with heavy drinking. In fact, full-time college students (46.6%) and their non-college peers (47.7%) reported nearly identical rates of past-month drinking.
The split between young men and young women is also remarkably even: 46.7% of males and 48.3% of females in this age group drank in the past month. This reflects a broader trend in which the historical gender gap in alcohol use has been narrowing for years.
Binge Drinking and Heavy Use
About 17% of U.S. adults binge drink, meaning they consume four or more drinks (for women) or five or more drinks (for men) on a single occasion. A smaller group, roughly 6%, qualifies as heavy drinkers: eight or more drinks per week for women, or 15 or more for men. Over 90% of adults who drink excessively are binge drinkers rather than daily heavy drinkers, which means most excessive drinking in the U.S. happens in concentrated episodes rather than spread evenly throughout the week.
Among young adults aged 18 to 25, binge drinking rates are higher than the national average. About 26.7% reported binge drinking in the past month. Again, rates were nearly identical between men (26.5%) and women (26.9%), and between college students (25.0%) and non-students (27.3%).
What Counts as One Drink
These statistics all rely on a standard definition of “one drink,” which contains 0.6 ounces (14 grams) of pure alcohol. In practical terms, that’s 12 ounces of regular beer at 5% alcohol, 5 ounces of wine at 12%, or a 1.5-ounce shot of 80-proof liquor. Many poured drinks at bars and restaurants exceed these amounts, so a single glass of wine or a craft beer may actually count as one and a half or two standard drinks.
Current U.S. guidelines define moderate drinking as two drinks or fewer per day for men and one drink or fewer per day for women. Anything above that on a regular basis moves into the territory health agencies flag as risky.
The Downward Trend
The broader picture is one of gradual decline. The 2024 Gallup figure of 58% is four percentage points lower than the year before and sits at a level the U.S. hasn’t seen since the mid-1990s. Multiple data sources confirm the pattern: fewer people drinking, fewer drinking occasions per month, and fewer people reporting they drank yesterday.
Several forces likely contribute. Younger generations have shown less interest in alcohol than their predecessors, non-alcoholic beer and spirits have become mainstream products, and public health messaging around alcohol risks has grown more direct. The pandemic briefly disrupted the trend, with some surveys showing increased drinking in 2020 and 2021, but the numbers have since resumed their downward path.