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When 26-year-old Rachel, a graduate student in Milwaukee, hangs out with friends, they are more likely to spend their time at the community theater, local coffeehouses, or volunteering than hanging out at bars or liquor-soaked parties. Despite their city\u2019s well-established drinking culture<\/a>, she and her other twenty-something friends are mostly sober.<\/p>\n Rachel, who asked that her last name be withheld to freely discuss her substance use, has her reasons for abstaining. She lost a parent to alcoholism, which will make most people more careful of how much they consume, she says. And with more research coming out about the harms of alcohol, increasingly more Gen Zers in general are rethinking their relationship to booze, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I started questioning my views, I found more time for creative hobbies, for self care,\u201d Rachel tells Fortune<\/em>. \u201cWhen you give up one bad habit, you empower yourself to question others. It\u2019s a chain reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n Research backs her up. Over the past two decades, the percentage of those 18 to 34 who say they occasionally have an alcoholic drink has fallen from 72% to 62%, according to a Gallup poll from last year<\/a>. The percentage of regular drinkers\u2014defined as having a drink in the past week\u2014has also declined in that age group, falling from 67% to 61%. Underage drinking has also declined significantly in the past two decades<\/a>, and \u201cdry January,\u201d \u201csober conscious,\u201d \u201csober curious,\u201d and other monikers for the movement have entered the lexicon.<\/p>\n Much hand-wringing has ensued among commentators who worry the kids just aren\u2019t having much fun anymore. But Rachel says abstaining from alcohol actually allows her to have more, while also improving her sleep and enabling her to make a better impression at things like networking events. And she still indulges in other substances, like marijuana, that she says are safer.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople my age, I feel they have a much more critical view of alcohol,\u201d she says. \u201cNobody wants to be the person who\u2019s had a little too much to drink at the party. Nobody likes that person.\u201d<\/p>\n The shift is significant, says Brooke Arterberry, a researcher at the University of Michigan\u2019s Institute for Social Research who has studied young peoples\u2019 relationships to alcohol. Young adults are still drinking and engaging in risky behaviors, Arterberry tells Fortune<\/em>, but she expects the rise in sobriety to continue. Why it is occurring still needs to be studied more, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are still a lot of questions as to why they are not drinking as much. We\u2019d like to say, \u2018oh, they\u2019re on their phones,\u2019 but it\u2019s not necessarily been shown to be the case,\u201d she says. It is likely a combination of factors. Gen Z is socializing less in person, and social norms may be changing. Parenting changes might also be a factor, as is the increased pressure young people feel to succeed, the amount of accessible information on the dangers of drinking, and even economic instability, she says. Increased marijuana use is also having an effect.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an interplay going on. We have to disentangle it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Despite younger generations\u2019 shift to drinking less, alcohol sales in the U.S. don\u2019t necessarily reflect the downward trend. Beer, wine, and spirits sales spiked during the first year of the pandemic and stayed largely the same since, perhaps as a result of rising prices in general, but also because, as Gallup\u2019s survey shows, older Americans are actually drinking more than they used to.<\/p>\n Still, the sober lifestyle has made an impact, including making non-alcoholic, or NA, beverages\u00a0a big business. In 2023, non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits sales topped $565 million, a 35% increase compared to 2022, according to NielsenIQ<\/a>.\u00a0NA beer leads the pack, and is now the fastest-growing segment of the beer market. NA sales are still a small portion of total sales, amounting to around 1% in the U.S., but the growth is a bright spot in a dimming category<\/a>, which experts expect to continue.<\/p>\n Athletic Brewing<\/a> Company is at the forefront of the NA shift, offering alcohol-free beers that many consumers say are the closest-tasting to the real thing.\u00a0Whether consumed by those who don\u2019t drink at all, or during the week by those who still imbibe on the weekends, the sober shift is very real, says Andrew Katz, the company\u2019s chief marketing officer. And Athletic is banking on being thought of as a lifestyle brand, rather than a company that sells beverages. Their customers, he says, are \u201cactive improvers;\u201d people making small changes to behavior that yield big results.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s driven by health and wellness writ large. If you drill into it a bit more, it\u2019s about mental well-being too,\u201d says Katz of Gen Zers drinking less alcohol. \u201cYounger consumers have the benefit of access to a lot more information about what alcohol does to you, how it affects your sleep. They have so much more data on themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Investors have taken notice. Last month, Athletic secured $50 million in equity financing to increase production capacity and expand its offerings at global retailers. The fundraising doubled the company\u2019s valuation, which now sits at $800 million, according to the Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/em>. It is backed by the likes of Keurig Dr Pepper<\/a>, with celebrity ambassadors including Lance Armstrong, Momofuku founder David Chang, tennis phenom Naomi Osaka, and football star J.J. Watt, among other big names.<\/p>\n\nThe business of not drinking alcohol<\/strong><\/h2>\n