Where Have All The Drinkers Gone?

Teetotalism has become a badge of honour, the alcohol-free market is booming and mindfulness has ousted getting messy. But while millennials are showing up for sober club nights, the next generation has opted out of drinking culture entirely. WH finds out why...

- Sophie Wilkinson and Penny Carroll

It’s Friday night and Lucie Hilin is passing go. The 18-year-old sociology student is an hour into a game of Monopoly with four of her uni mates. The banknotes are crusty with Cheezels crumbs and there’s Thai takeaway on its way. They aren’t toasting the purchase of every property with tequila. Nor are they recovering from an epic two-day hangover. It’s a refreshingly different Friday from those gen X-ers would have enjoyed as students, when binge-drinking was considered a competitive sport.

Now, Australia’s drinking culture is in flux, and young women are leading the sober charge. According to the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey, the percentage of women aged 18-24, previously the group most likely to drink more than two or more standard drinks a day on average, has dropped from 20 per cent in 2007 to 12.8 per cent in 2016, with women in their 50s now outranking them as the group most likely to drink at risky levels. In 2018, a study by La Trobe University found that young adults aged between 24 and 29 are most likely to have recently reduced their intake, while women are twice as likely as men to quit booze.

The abstinence trend has left the $15.5 billion Australian alcohol market both shaken and stirred. Its biggest players are plunging millions into low- and no-alcohol beverages in an attempt to cash in on the dry dollar, while start-ups producing high-quality zero-proof spirits and craft brews are multiplying rapidly.