WASHINGTON: A slight majority of Americans now believe that even moderate alcohol consumption is harmful to health, reflecting growing public health concerns and a continued decline in national drinking rates, according to a new Gallup survey.
The poll reveals that only 54% of Americans report drinking alcohol either occasionally or regularly in 2025 — the lowest level recorded since Gallup began tracking the metric in 1939, just a few years after the end of Prohibition.
Between 1997 and 2023, at least 60% of respondents consistently identified as drinkers, making the current figure a notable drop. The shift comes amid increasing awareness about the health risks associated with alcohol, even in moderate amounts.
Those who did say they drank alcohol reported it was in smaller amounts, with the average number of drinks consumed in the last week being 2.8, “the lowest figure Gallup has recorded since 1996,” the pollster said on its website.
Attitudes toward alcohol, which Gallup has been tracking since 2001, saw the most significant difference in the poll published this week.
The number of people who consider moderate consumption of alcohol — up to one or two drinks per day — to be bad for personal health rose to 53% in 2025. For comparison, the figure was 27% in the early 2000s.
“Americans’ drinking habits are shifting amid the medical world’s reappraisal of alcohol’s health effects,” the pollster noted.
In January, then-US surgeon general Vivek Murthy called for alcohol to be sold with a cancer warning label on its packaging.
“Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer, responsible for about 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States,” he said in a statement.
“Yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk,” he added, underscoring the urgent need for public education.
