According to a poll, the majority of Americans believe that alcohol is harmful to health

 According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans who admit to drinking alcohol is at an all-time low. A recent survey found that even moderate alcohol consumption has a negative impact on health for a small majority of Americans, despite the country's declining drinking rates. 

When Gallup conducted the survey in 1939, just a few years after alcohol prohibition in the United States was lifted, it found that the percentage of Americans who admitted to drinking alcohol was at an all-time low. 

According to the survey, 54% of Americans said they drank alcohol occasionally or regularly in 2025. This is down from at least 60% in 1997 and 2023. 

According to the pollster's website, the average sardararticle number of drinks consumed in the previous week was 2.8, which was "the lowest figure Gallup has recorded since 1996" among those who admitted to drinking alcohol. In the poll that was released this week, attitudes toward alcohol, which Gallup has been tracking since 2001, showed the most significant difference. 

In 2025, 53% of people believe that moderate alcohol consumption, or drinking no more than one or two drinks per day, is harmful to their health. In comparison, the percentage was 27% at the beginning of the 2000s. 

According to the pollster, "Americans' drinking habits are shifting amid the medical world's reappraisal of alcohol's health effects." 

In January, then-US surgeon general Vivek Murthy called for alcohol to be sold with a cancer warning label on its packaging.