For the first time since COVID-19 changed daily life, Americans are pulling back on alcohol.
A large national analysis published September 21, 2026 in Annals of Internal Medicine reports that both any-alcohol use and heavy drinking fell between 2022 and 2024, ending a six-year climb.
The study, led by Dr. Brian P. Lee at Keck Medicine of USC, drew on National Health Interview Survey responses from 114,352 US adults between 2018 and 2024.
Any-alcohol use dropped by nearly 2 percent from 2022 to 2024, and heavy drinking fell by more than 8 percent over the same window.
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Younger adults are leading the pullback
Gen Z (ages 18 to 29) posted the largest drop in any-alcohol use, at more than 5 percent. Millennials (ages 30 to 49) cut heavy drinking the most, with a 17 percent decline between 2022 and 2024.
Researchers point to the "sober-curious" movement, cannabis use as a substitute, and greater health awareness as likely reasons younger adults are drinking less.
"Seeing this first decline gives you something to hope for as a doctor, but you have to be appropriately cautious too, because one change doesn't necessarily mean a sustained trend," Lee told CNN.
Heavy drinking is defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as four or more drinks on any day or eight or more per week for women, and five or more on any day or 15 or more per week for men.
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Adults 50 to 64 are going the other way
The middle-age picture looks very different. Between 2018 and 2024, any-alcohol use among adults ages 50 to 64 rose by nearly 4 percent. Heavy drinking in that same age group climbed by more than 36 percent.
"Heavy drinking among ages 50-64 is up by more than a third since 2018, a concerning trend because this age group faces some of the greatest risks of harm from alcohol, including cirrhosis and alcohol-related cancers," Lee said in a statement from Keck Medicine.
That is not an abstract worry. The US Surgeon General's 2025 advisory linked alcohol to at least seven cancers, including breast (in women), colorectum, esophagus, voice box, liver, mouth and throat.
The advisory estimated that alcohol contributes to nearly 20,000 cancer deaths in the United States each year. For breast, mouth and throat cancers, the risk may start to rise around one drink a day or less.
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What the numbers do and do not say
Even after the recent drop, US drinking still sits above where it was before the pandemic. Dr. Jagpreet Chhatwal, director of the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital, told CNN the direction has changed but the ceiling is still high.
"But overall, I would not see this as a big victory in any way because the rates have been so high, even before the pandemic," he said.
Lee also warned that fewer drinkers on paper will not automatically mean fewer alcohol-related illnesses.
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This article is made and published by Mie Hermansen, who may have used AI in the preparation.