Alcohol consumption in the United States continues to evolve, shaped by health concerns, economic pressure, and changing social norms. ThinkNow’s 2025 Alcohol Consumption Report, based on a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults age 21+, offers a clear picture of how, where, and why people are drinking today—and how those behaviors vary sharply by generation and cultural background.
Download the full report here.
Across generations, Millennials stand out as the most active alcohol consumers. They are the most likely to drink weekly or more often and show the highest participation across nearly every beverage category, including beer, wine, cocktails, hard liquor, and hard seltzers. Unlike older cohorts, Millennials’ drinking occasions span both everyday relaxation and special celebrations, reinforcing their role as the industry’s most versatile consumer segment.
Gen X follows closely behind in frequency, while Boomers show steadier, less variable habits. Gen Z, in contrast, is notably less likely to drink frequently and more likely to report cutting back altogether.
Regardless of age or ethnicity, alcohol consumption is now primarily an at-home activity. Nearly three-quarters of drinkers say they most often consume alcohol at home, far exceeding restaurants, bars, or social gatherings. This shift reflects lasting changes from recent years, including cost control, convenience, and lifestyle reprioritization.
While Millennials remain the most likely to associate drinking with celebrations, Gen Z is the least likely to drink at home, suggesting a looser attachment to alcohol as a routine behavior rather than a default social accompaniment.
A critical takeaway from the report is that moderation is rising. More adults report decreasing their alcohol consumption over the past year than increasing it. Health and financial considerations dominate the reasons for cutting back, with improvements in physical health and saving money cited most often.
These motivations vary by age. Younger adults, especially Gen Z, are more likely to consciously reduce consumption, while Boomers largely report no change, indicating that habits stabilize with age.
Among Millennials specifically, avoiding hangovers is a disproportionately strong driver of reduced drinking, highlighting growing awareness of alcohol’s short-term physical costs even among heavy participants.
For those who are drinking more, stress is the dominant factor. Roughly half of adults who increased their alcohol consumption cite stress or anxiety as the primary reason, followed closely by discovering new beverages they enjoy. Socializing more often and having greater disposable income also contributes to a lesser extent.
This contrast, health-driven reduction versus stress-driven increases, underscores the polarized role alcohol continues to play: both a potentially unhealthy choice and a coping mechanism.
About half of alcohol consumers say their preferences have changed in the past year, whether in brands, flavors, or beverage types. These shifts are most pronounced among younger consumers, particularly Gen Z and Millennials, who are far more likely than older adults to experiment.
Two-thirds of drinkers overall say they are open to trying new brands or flavors, but openness declines sharply with age. Boomers overwhelmingly prefer familiar options, while Millennials and Gen X occupy a middle ground between exploration and brand loyalty.
When buying alcohol, trusted brands and social enjoyment matter most across the board. Affordability, alcohol content, and perceived quality also rank highly. However, Millennials consistently evaluate more factors than any other generation, placing greater emphasis on brand prestige, recommendations, packaging, and trend relevance.
This suggests a more complex decision-making process, where functional attributes and social signaling intersect, especially for younger and mid-aged consumers.
Just over one-third of alcohol consumers say global events, including economic shifts or trade changes, have a moderate or significant impact on their access to or preference for imported alcohol. Sensitivity to global influence is highest among Asians, Gen Z, and Millennials, indicating that international supply chains and pricing dynamics increasingly shape consumer choice.
Alcohol consumption in 2025 is defined by moderation, experimentation, and context. Consumers are not abandoning alcohol, but they are thinking more carefully about when, why, and what they drink. Health concerns are pushing behavior in one direction, while stress and discovery pull in another. For brands and retailers, understanding generational and cultural nuance is central to staying relevant in a market that is becoming more selective, more intentional, and more fragmented.
Download the full report here.
The racial reckoning of 2020 brought diversity, equity, and inclusion to the forefront, although the concept itself is not new. Unfortunately, many brands have taken advantage of this movement for their benefit, resulting in broken promises and hollow commitments that have undermined their reputation. However, for brands like LVMH, there is an urgent need to approach DEI with genuine commitment and intentionality, actively embracing cultural differences to enhance the employee experience and drive business results.
For Benefit Cosmetics, an LVMH brand, DEI expands beyond human resources to developing inclusive products and other elements that impact all facets of the organization. This culture shift is important as the U.S. consumer market becomes increasingly diverse, blurring the lines between DEI and multicultural marketing.
Implementing DEI is not only the right thing to do from a moral standpoint but is also a savvy business move. Brands that fail to tap into the purchasing power of diverse communities, particularly Black and Hispanic consumers, are missing out on a significant opportunity.
Yet, the beauty industry still lacks a broad spectrum of cosmetics that cater to the diversity within these groups. It's essential to look beyond race and gender and start meaningful conversations around other dimensions of diversity, such as ability and sexual orientation. Brands have a unique opportunity to raise awareness of the barriers that underrepresented groups face and use their privilege to empower them.
Mia Talavera, Director of Global Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at Benefit Cosmetics (LVMH), stops by The New Mainstream podcast to share her insights on the urgent need for genuine commitment and intentionality concerning DEI at the organizational and product levels.
Meet Our Guest:
Mia Talavera is a high-performing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leader passionate about inspiring positive culture change by designing and driving global DE&I strategies to promote and advance inclusion in the workplace. Mia has advised and consulted organizational leaders across various industries on leveraging innovative DEI initiatives, most recently driving real change within the beauty sector with Benefit Cosmetics.
Mia is the Director of Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Benefit Cosmetics (LVMH). She is also a certified Unconscious Bias Facilitator and earned a Bachelor's Business Degree and D&I certification from Yale Business School of Management.
Food in America is multicultural. It’s a fusion of various tastes, ingredients, and cooking styles from around the world that culminate into a rich flavor profile of cultural diversity. But at its core, it’s American food, representing the swiftly changing demographics in the U.S. as it trends toward a majority-minority nation.
Brands in the food and CPG space are tasked with understanding the consumers driving these trends and showing up authentically, in-person and online. It's becoming increasingly important for brands to take intentional actions like staffing stores and restaurants to mirror the communities they’re serving. Birria lovers craving authenticity, for example, may give a restaurant a side-eye if no one in the kitchen serving up these tasty tacos is Latino. To them, insiders serve as translators, a bridge between the brand and the consumer communicating the needs and desires of the community.
But authenticity often gets misinterpreted in food. Dishes made generations before will naturally evolve based on what is available now and life experiences. Yet authenticity does drive purchases in CPG and food, from ingredients to labeling, especially among Hispanics and African Americans.
Luis Cachua, Director of Multicultural Strategy and Brand Partnerships at Food Beast, stops by The New Mainstream podcast to discuss the importance of authenticity in the food and CPG space and the love of birria tacos!
Listen to the The New Mainstream podcast.
The pandemic has accelerated the shift from traditional in-person gym memberships to broader acceptance of at-home connected fitness equipment. But a recent ThinkNow study shows that the gym isn’t dead, and connected fitness has a long way to go.
For our 2021 ThinkNow Smart Fitness Report, ThinkNow conducted a nationwide online survey of American adults ages 18 to 64 to understand consumer usage of internet-connected fitness equipment and perceptions of connected fitness brands. (more…)
When consumers have a good experience, they tell three people. When they have a bad one, they tell ten. Doing a deep dive into conversations taking place on the ground is essential to identifying and combating false narratives that can derail a multicultural marketing campaign. This is especially important when that campaign is in the interest of public health. (more…)