Gen Z Alcohol Trends: Are They Actually Drinking Less?

Gen Z alcohol trends are often reduced to a single headline: “They’re drinking less.”
 
Despite the narrative that Gen Z is a sober generation, today’s youngest legal-drinking-age Americans are still consuming alcohol—they’re just doing so in a different way than previous generations, according to insight from NIQ. Yes, Gen Z is taking longer than past cohorts to mature into their drinking habits, but convenience retailers who write them off do so at their own peril.
 
At the start of 2026, NIQ data showed that Gen Z makes up about 11% of U.S. off-premise alcohol purchasing households. This cohort approaches alcohol with different intentions: they drink for special occasions or social events, gravitate toward flavor-forward drinks, prefer RTDs and canned cocktails, and have less brand loyalty than other consumers.
 
Debunking Gen Z’s Drinking Patterns
Kaleigh Theriault, beverage-alcohol thought leader at NIQ, said the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic led to some incorrect assumptions about Gen Z. Many members of Gen Z were newly of legal drinking age when bars and restaurants were closed or limited, so for years some industry observers assumed they were forgoing alcohol altogether.
 
But that’s not entirely true: While Gen Z has been slower to mature into typical drinking patterns, its becoming clear that they’re not the teetotalers some have assumed now that more than half of this generation is over the age of 21.
 
What Influences Gen Z Alcohol Buying Habits
Gen Z does tend to underspend on alcohol compared to older generations, but Theriault said that’s typical of younger Americans who have less disposable income. A 2025 report from Rabobank further concluded that Gen Z households spend a smaller percentage of their income on alcohol than prior generations did at their age.
 
How they socialize is a factor in this underspending: Members of Gen Z generally are not the type to pour a glass of wine when they get home from work on a weeknight. Instead, they’re more intentional about when they drink, “saving” their consumption for special occasions or social events with friends.
 
“They're likely planning things around celebrations or potentially sporting events. Drinking is very much a celebratory, intentional occasion,” Theriault said.
 
While this behavior is currently characterizing the cohort’s drinking patterns, Theriault cautioned against making sweeping generalizations about Gen Z. The entire cohort won’t turn 21 until the year 2031 or 2032—still half a decade away. Furthermore, they’re the most demographically diverse generation ever in the United States, with just shy of 50% being non-white.
 
Even among Hispanic members of Gen Z, distinct behaviors shape how those consumers approach the alcohol shelf. Theriault noted that brands and retailers often think Spanish-language ads or point of sale materials are necessary to reach Hispanic consumers, but that’s not always the case. A first-generation Mexican-American Gen Z shopper may have an entirely different relationship to Spanish than, say, a third-generation American whose family is of mixed Hispanic heritage.
 
Flavor, Variety and RTDs Drive Gen Z Alcohol Purchases
If there is a common thread guiding Gen Z’s alcohol purchases, it’s flavor. That preference for flavor-forward offerings across beer, wine and spirits largely explains why Gen Z is more influenced by variety packs. They also spend 10% of alcohol dollars on RTD options like canned cocktails and hard seltzers, more than double Boomers’ share (4%) and higher than the average across all generations (7%), according to NIQ.
 
However, Theriault noted these younger legal-drinking-age shoppers are less likely than older shoppers to know exactly which brand they plan to purchase when they step inside a store. That opens a huge opportunity for drinks with eye-catching displays and compelling pricing or discounts that can also impact impulse buys.
 
As the cohort has aged, their patterns have become clearer: We’ve gained more visibility into how they approach alcohol and how it fits into their lives and budgets. With Gen Z still coming of age, retailers would be wise not to assume that what’s true of this generation today is set in stone any more than the myth of their teetotaling was.
 
“What they are doing now is going to look different in five years when they're all legal drinking age and it's going to look different as they move through life stages just as every other generation has,” Theriault said. “Every generation filters through those life stages.”

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