Drinking alcohol might be on the wane, but beer is still king in the United States even if the crown rests uneasily.
Those are two insights from survey results published by Gallup this week.
Drilling down deeper reveals beer’s gain is wine’s loss while people who prefer liquor remained fairly steady.
A total of 38% of respondents said they drink beer most often while 29% identified wine, and 30% answered liquor this year.
That represents a four-point rise for beer since 2024 and a four-point decline for wine while liquor ticked up slightly from 29%.
Beer has been No. 1 since 2005 when it came in at 36% and wine spiked to 39%. That was the only year since 1992 beer wasn’t the leader, though its figure of 47% that year marks the high-water mark for the beverage.
Wine was at 27% in 1992 while liquor was down at 21%, so in the long run beer preference is down, wine is about the same and liquor is up notably.
In another interesting development, the number of drinks people reported drinking on average over the past week was down significantly from recent years but even with the beginning of Gallup’s published data.
The company found people said they had approximately 2.8 drinks in the previous seven days in 1996 — the same number as 2025. However, the most recent figure represents a big dip from the previous nine years, which all came in at 3.6-3.9 drinks per week.
That number peaked at 5.1 in 2003.
From an age standpoint, Gallup says young and middle-aged adults are more likely than those 55 and up to prefer beer while young adults were least likely to favor wine.
Overall, 54% of respondents said they drink alcohol at least on occasion, the lowest figure on record (edging the 55% of 1958, though the figure was as low as 56% in 1989).
That is a sharp drop from two years ago when 67% said they drink.
The decline comes at the same time a majority of responders told Gallup they believe drinking in moderation is bad for one’s health.
