Do the young people of 2026 drink? Yes. But in a different way than those of two, three or four decades ago. falls usual consumption and the majority (57.9%) of people between 15 and 29 years old claim that they only try alcohol very sporadically or have directly banished it from their lives. However, that does not take away the other side of the coin: a considerable percentage of young people maintains the more or less frequent habit of raising a glass to their lips and, above all, remains social pressure that continues to associate partying and drunkenness.
That’s at least what the latest studies reveal.
Of young people and bottles. Generation Z is changing the way they relate to alcohol. The trend is not new (in Xataka we have talked other times of her), but that does not mean that it is easy to keep track of it: the change is so multifaceted, has so many chiaroscuros and above all has given rise to so many statistics, that it is difficult to summarize it with clear concepts.
What is indisputable is that, beyond its socio-health dimension, the phenomenon is already influencing the way to relate of Generation Z and the alcohol industry, which faces what is likely to be your biggest challenge: how the hell to attract an audience that is increasingly less interested in the bottle.
A percentage: 57.9%. The first touch that helps to understand the trend was provided a few days ago by FAD Juventud in a report about the matter. Among the many data in the document, there is one eloquent one: the majority of its interviewees were between 15 and 29 years old (57.9%) claim that they do not consume alcohol on a regular basis. In fact, the percentage is the sum of those who drink only a few times a year (22.7%), those who almost never do so (12.7%), those who have given up drinking (8.1%) and those who have never touched it (14.4%).
When asking their respondents how often they try beer, wine, cocktails or any other alcoholic product, FAD researchers have also found that only 13.2% admit to doing so with a “high frequency”, which is equivalent to drinking every or almost every day.
less and less present. It’s not just that most young people drink very occasionally, it’s that their relationship with the bottle is cooling. That’s what at least one other recent study on the subject suggests: the ‘Spanish Health Survey’released by Health and which, although it includes indicators for 2023, has just been published now. When analyzing the adolescent population cohort, its authors have had a surprise: a collapse in alcohol intake.
If in 2006 the prevalence of habitual consumption among people aged 15 to 24 was 43.8%, in 2023 this figure had dropped to 17.9%. That is, the indicator decreased by 60% in less than 20 years. “It is the largest drop observed among all age groups,” confirm the Ministry of Health, which recalls that, in general, the prevalence during that period went from 48.8% to 31.1%.
The other data: 35.6%. Fad provides a third interesting indicator. According to your latest surveyfocused on young people between 15 and 29 years old residing in Spain, 35.6% say they have reduced their alcohol consumption and 17.3% have directly decided to give up drinking permanently. It is not at all surprising if we take into account that 51.9% considers that alcohol is harmful to health and most adolescents know well what getting drunk entails.
When Fad asked the young people what made them give up alcohol, 33.5% explained that “under its influence you do things that you shouldn’t” and 30.4% acknowledged that when drunk “you are more exposed to something happening to you.”
Not only that. The majority of those interviewed (67.6%) boast a “fairly or very healthy” lifestyle, which among other things includes going to the gym (23.1%) or playing sports (21.6%). These are interesting percentages because, as Fad recalls, they exceed those associated with alcohol-based activities.
Everything perfect, right? No. And here the nuances begin. Over the last few decades, Spain has been “significantly” changing its way of consuming alcohol. And that transformation is being especially clear among young people. That’s something that recognize even the Ministry of Health. However, it is one thing to drink less or differently and another to turn your back on drinks.
In the same report in which he confirms the collapse in consumption, Fad issues a warning to sailors: “Despite this trend, alcohol is still very present in the lives of youth: six out of ten young people between 15 and 29 years old consume frequently or occasionally.” The agency has also detected another worrying trend: 20% of those who use alcohol and energy drinks acknowledge that they mix them frequently, and they know their effects on the body.
Social pressure, untouchable. Curiously, despite all the changes registered in recent decades, there is something that persists: social pressure around alcohol. More than half of young people have internalized that drinking is harmful to their body, but that does not mean that the consumption of beer, wine and other spirits continues to be normalized at night. What’s more, Fad has detected “a general pressure to drink,” especially at parties.
“It exists in leisure and party contexts and is related to the need to ‘be normal’, fit in, integrate into the peer group and belong to something, and has intensified at an early age,” warns the organization, which adds: “Those who do not drink say that they often have to explain themselves, justify their position. Furthermore, in some contexts it is assumed that those who do not drink ‘cut the bulls’.”
“So that they leave you alone”. The Fad Juventud report is not based only on polls or statistics. Its authors have relied on discussion groups with 32 young people between 18 and 28 years old residing in Madrid. And their conclusion is clear: as paradoxical as it may sound, they drink less alcohol, but this trend coexists with “a strong normalization of consumption.” So strong, in fact, that it keeps the “general pressure to drink” alive. Exactly the same as two or three decades ago.
It explained wonderfully one of the young people interviewed by Fad, who admits that sometimes, when going out at night, he just orders a Fanta. However, when they ask him what he is drinking, he answers that it is a glass of soda with vodka. “Just so they leave you alone. You have to learn to live with it because wherever you go they ask you.”
Images | Tobias Tullius (Unsplash) FAD Youth 1 and 2
In Xataka | The most drunk beer brands in each autonomous community of Spain, gathered on this map
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings