Jesse Scheckner
Florida adults are drinking less alcohol than they did a decade ago, reflecting a broader national trend of declining alcohol use and rising concern about its health risks.
A new analysis by food and beverage compliance firm Trace One, drawing on federal data, found that the share of Sunshine State adults who reported drinking alcohol in the past month fell from a peak of 58.8% in 2015 to 52.6% in 2023.
Between 2013 and 2023, Florida’s adult drinking rate dropped by 2.7 percentage points, which was notably less than the national decrease of 4.1 points. But when measured from each state’s peak year, Florida’s 6.2-point drop outpaced the national 4.4-point decline, suggesting that Floridians are moving away from alcohol more sharply since the highest point of consumption.
The trend coincides with findings from Gallup’s annual “Consumption Habits” survey, conducted July 7-21, which found that only 54% of U.S. adults drink alcohol — the lowest level Gallup recorded in its nearly 90 years of operation.
Trace One used the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s annual state estimates of past-month alcohol use among adults, identified peak-use years and calculated changes to 2023. A 10-year comparison (2013-2023) was also conducted, with all changes tested for statistical significance at the 90% confidence level.
Gallup surveyed 1,015 U.S. adults living in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., by phone. The poll had a 4-point margin of error at the 95% confidence level.
Florida ranks 24th among all states in terms of reduced alcohol use from the peak year, but it is among the lowest in terms of the 10-year change.
Gallup found a majority (53%) of U.S. adults now believe even moderate drinking is bad for health, a sharp reversal from past decades when moderate alcohol was sometimes touted as beneficial.
There’s been a marked change in use along political lines. In 2023, 65% of Republicans, 64% of Democrats and 61% of independent voters told Gallup they drank alcohol. By this year, Republican alcohol use dropped to 46% — a sizable, 19-point difference, compared to the use rates of 55% for independents (-6 percentage points) and 61% for Democrats (-3 percentage points).
Those who still imbibed reported drinking less, with a record-low 24% of drinkers saying they consumed an alcoholic beverage within the past day and 40% saying it had been more than a week since their last drink, the highest percentage since 2000.
“Factoring in all drinkers, including those who did not drink in the past week, the average number of drinks consumed over the past seven days is 2.8, the lowest figure Gallup has recorded since 1996,” Gallup pollsters wrote.
“This is down from 3.8 drinks a year ago and closer to 4.0 drinks over the seven years prior to that. The highest average number since Gallup has tracked this is 5.1 drinks per week, recorded in 2003.”
Medical research has increasingly linked alcohol to serious health problems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that excessive alcohol use contributes to liver disease, heart problems, cancer, injuries and premature death.
Alcohol-related mortality in Florida has risen in recent years, with the CDC ranking the state third nationally last year for deaths tied to liver disease and cirrhosis.
Despite the decline in drinking overall, Americans who do drink still favor beer, followed by liquor and wine, Gallup found. Men are far more likely than women to prefer beer (52% vs. 23%), while women lean toward wine (44% vs. 14%). Liquor is about equally popular, at around 30% for both sexes.
At the same time, alcohol alternatives are booming. Trace One’s analysis of Google Trends shows searches for non-alcoholic beer, zero-proof spirits and mocktail recipes have surged over the past decade.
And consumer interest is no longer niche, as evidenced by brands like Budweiser, Heineken, Guinness, Michelob and Stella, among many others, rolling out non-alcoholic versions of flagship products to sit alongside non-alcoholic brands like Athletic Brewing and O’Doul’s.
Spirits companies are also investing in zero-proof gin, whiskey and tequila alternatives, while other options — including cannabis-infused beverages — are growing in popularity.
According to the International Wine and Spirits Record, no-alcohol beverage volumes rose 29% in 2023, well ahead of the 7% growth seen in low-alcohol products. No-alcohol beer and cider servings, which make up 81% of all servings, jumped 30%, while ready-to-drink non-alcoholic subtypes surged 36%, zero-proof spirit sales rose 32% and alcohol-free wine increased 18%.
Alcohol-adjacent products known as “functional beverages,” including drinks containing a mood enhancer or supplementation like CBD/THC, nootropics or adaptogens, grew by 15% in 2023, a report from the Colorado-based Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts said.
“The growing availability of these products reflects a broader shift: alcohol alternatives are no longer seen as an afterthought for the sober or ‘designated driver,’ but as a legitimate category catering to a much wider audience,” Federico Fontanella of Trace One wrote.
Notably, while most states saw large drops in alcohol use, there is a regional outlier. Trace One found that several Southeastern states, which tend to drink less overall, generally saw little to no statistically significant change from their peak years.
“Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, and West Virginia all report stable rates,” Fontanella wrote, “indicating that alcohol consumption in much of the region has held steady even as other parts of the country have experienced notable declines.”
