According to their own statements, young adults in Germany drink significantly less alcohol than older adults.

Almost half of those aged 18 to 24 (49 percent) say they don't drink alcohol at all.

That's more than the German average (45 percent), according to a survey by the British market and opinion research institute YouGov.

According to this, an age comparison shows that respondents aged 45 to 54 in Germany are the least likely to do without alcohol (41 percent).

For adults aged 25 to 34, the figure is 47 percent, for those aged 35 to 44 it is 44 percent, and for those over 55 it is 46 percent.

Peter Philipp Schmitt

Editor in the department "Germany and the World".

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Even if you compare the German Generation Z (Gen Z), the so-called post-millennials, with young adults in other European countries, the eighteen to twenty-four-year-olds drink the least in this country.

While among the nine countries surveyed, the Swiss and Portuguese are the least likely to not drink alcohol (30 percent each), in the United Kingdom it is 43 percent who do not drink alcohol.

In Belgium there are 32 percent, in Poland 33 percent, in Austria and Bulgaria 37 percent and in France 39 percent.

Germany is therefore the only country in which more young people state that they abstain from alcohol than drink alcohol (48 percent).

The data is based on surveys in 26 countries.

More than 250,000 people were surveyed.

A welcome trend

The so-called alcohol survey by the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) for 2021 had shown that there was a positive trend, especially among young people: in 2019, only 8.7 percent of twelve to seventeen-year-olds stated that they consumed alcohol regularly, i.e. at least once a week consume.

This “historically low” value was also confirmed in 2021. In 2004, 21.2 percent of young people said they regularly drank alcohol.

According to the BZgA, in 2021 almost a third (32 percent) of young adults (18 to 25 years) stated that they had regularly consumed alcohol in the past twelve months, 16.7 percent consumed "average amounts above the threshold for alcohol consumption that is hazardous to health".

According to the BZgA, every third young adult (32.7 percent) was drunk at least once in the past 30 days.

The study by the Federal Center did not take into account the exact number of those who do not consume alcohol.

However, she did break down that regular alcohol consumption (40 versus 23.3 percent) and binge drinking (37.8 versus 27.1 percent) were more common among young men in Germany in 2021 than among young women.

Regular consumption was particularly low among adolescents and young adults with a “Turkey/Asia” migration background: only 2.5 percent of twelve to seventeen year olds regularly drank alcohol and 16.6 percent of eighteen to twenty-five year olds.

According to new data from the Federal Institute for Population Research, every second child in Germany now has a migration background.