More Americans in new poll believe drinking alcohol is unhealthy

More Americans now believe that drinking alcohol in moderation is unhealthy, according to a new Gallup poll.

The Gallup poll found that 45 percent of Americans believe drinking in moderation — one or two alcoholic beverages a day — is unhealthy. This percentage marks a new historic high and is 6 percentage points higher than when the poll was taken last year.

It is also 17 percentage points higher than when the poll was taken in 2018, according to Gallup.

Similar shares of U.S. adults said they believe drinking in moderation does not make any difference to one’s health, according to the poll. Forty-three percent said drinking in moderation makes no difference, while 8 percent said it is healthy.

The poll also found that nearly 9 in 10 adults said drinking alcohol is “very” or “somewhat” harmful. Meanwhile, 8 percent said it is “not too harmful,” and 2 percent said it is “not at all harmful.”

When asked what the best health advice is for the average drinker, 55 percent said reducing the amount of alcohol they consume was the best advice. Twenty-two percent said stopping drinking altogether is the best advice, 17 percent said not to change drinking habits, and 6 percent had no opinion.

Young adults were more likely to say drinking alcohol is bad for their health, according to Gallup. Nearly two-thirds — 65 percent — of respondents 18 to 35 said moderate alcohol consumption is bad for their health, while 37 percent of those aged 35 to 54 and 39 percent of those aged 55 and older said the same.

The poll found that 58 percent of adults said they drink alcohol, which is slightly below the historical trend average of 63 percent. Among adults who drink alcohol, 61 percent reported having a drink in the past week and 38 percent said their last drink was more than a week ago.

The share of young adults reporting drinking alcohol is also on a downward trend, according to the poll. An average of 59 percent 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 percent of young adults who reported drinking alcohol between 2016 and 2019, according to the data.

The results are based on Gallup’s Consumption Habits poll conducted July 1-21 among 1,010 U.S. adults. It has a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points. For the results based on answers from adults who drink alcoholic beverages, the margin of sampling error is 5 percentage points.

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