Americans are drinking alcohol at the highest rate since 1985, according to a Gallup poll. But why? That is the million dollar question, though theories abound about the recession driving people to drink. History shows that one of the lowest drinking rates (58%) was in 1939, at the end of the Great Depression, so there goes that theory.
Sixty-seven percent of the 1,020 adults questioned in the poll said they drank alcohol. 41 percent said they preferred beer.
It’s easy to understand why the high point for drinking was in the hedonistic disco 70s (from 1976 to 1978), when 71 percent said they drank alcohol. But why the bump-up in drinkers now? That’s anyone’s guess.
Some other findings from the Gallup Poll:
–People who live on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts are more likely to prefer wine than those living elsewhere (maybe because the wine’s better). In the Midwest, beer still rules.
–No surprise that women, especially older women, tend to prefer wine, while men prefer beer. About 22 percent of men and 21 percent of women said they preferred liquor.
–Non and infrequent churchgoers are substantially more likely than more frequent church attenders to say they drink; and those who have no religious identity, Catholics, and non-Christians are more likely to drink than Protestants.
An interesting finding, which we’ve written about here at Drinking Diaries:Drinkers tend to be more educated and wealthier than abstainers, the Gallup telephone survey showed. Slightly more than 80 percent of people who said they earned at least $75,000 annually also identified themselves as drinkers.
Anyone have any quirky theories or observations? Let us know.
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Wealthy people drink more because paradoxically (deep down) they experience less pleasure than productive folks climbing the ladder. Alcohol helps them mimic the experience of pleasure as in talking time “out” to see the view (which often has a melancholic tinge).