N/A’s Growing Generation Gap
Generation Z gets much of the credit for fueling the rise of the non-alcoholic category, but for older Americans going N/A is not as easy as it sounds.
With another successful Dry January entering its second half, this year’s festivities came with a new set of statistics reflecting the continued changing attitudes toward alcohol. Perhaps not surprising, but still attention-catching were figures published in a 2024 Dry January report by CivicScience, a Pittsburgh-based consumer research company. According to their study results, a staggering 75% of drinking-age Generation Z said they were at least ‘somewhat likely’ to participate in abstention for the month. Of course, based on numerous other data points it’s likely many aren’t drinking the other eleven months of the year, either. But perhaps just as interesting was a clear correlation between age and likelihood to participate in Dry January. While 75% of those ages 21-24 were at least somewhat likely, those numbers dropped to 55% for ages 35-54 (a combo of older millennials and Gen X), and for 55+? Only 31% planned to participate. If, as many believe, the impacts of alcohol on sleep and overall health only get worse as we age, why does the correlation run counter to common sense?
We know that Generation Z has come of age in an environment that views the ritual of drinking differently. Different social habits that don’t revolve around going to bars, growing up in a time of greater awareness around healthy living, and even a greatly-expanded beverage landscape with more beverage options than any generation before it had access to. But beyond the many reasons that have contributed to lower consumption for Gen Z, a counterweight of societal factors have made it difficult for older generations to moderate or eliminate alcohol intake altogether.
The ritual of enjoying an adult beverage in social situations has been ingrained in most older Americans from a very early drinking age. Meeting friends and bar hopping during college became getting drinks with colleagues after work, then dinner and cocktails during date nights, later morphing into pouring a few glasses of wine after the kids go to bed. Whatever the progression of that ritual for Boomers, Generation X and at least the older Millennials, somewhere along the way it solidified that social situations went hand in hand with drinking alcohol.
Enter the non-alcoholic beverage space. While Gen Z gets the headlines for their groundbreaking drinking habits (or from the perspective of Big Alcohol, perhaps the lack thereof), soaring N/A sales are clearly being driven heavily by older age cohorts as well, many of whom have more disposable income to spend than younger counterparts just beginning their careers. But even as many restaurants and bars have made non-alcoholic beverages far more accessible, the stigma of being the only one in a group not to partake in a ritual most have known for years is very real, especially for someone who may be choosing to moderate alcohol consumption versus completely eliminating it.
Drawing a distinction between mindful drinkers and zero drinkers is not to take anything away from the sober community, those who have chosen to eliminate alcohol altogether. To the contrary, the N/A space continues to owe a debt of gratitude to that segment for largely championing the category publicly. We’ve personally heard many anecdotal stories from N/A brands who opened their doors expecting to find hordes of Gen Z and mindful drinkers on the other side, only to encounter sober drinkers enthusiastically willing to commit their wallets and social networks in support of these new businesses. But for this nascent beverage category to grow to its full potential, it will take a coalition of audiences to ensure its existence becomes not just a headline every January, but a significant part of the other eleven months of the year, as well.