The Alcohol Beverages Council said it was seeing a similar trend in New Zealand. Photo: Supplied
A trend away from alcohol for Gen Z is being replicated here in New Zealand, according to a local industry body.
A study by Mintel on Gen Z's drinking habits found a third of young people in the UK study - aged 18-24 - do not drink alcohol at all.
The Alcohol Beverages Council said it was seeing a similar trend in New Zealand.
The recent Health NZ survey 2023/24 found 20 percent of 18-24 year olds chose not to drink. Overall, the survey found nearly a quarter of adults did not drink.
The Mintel study found young people who did tend to drink did so as a treat or to mark a special occasion. It also found a growing preference for low- and no-alcohol alternatives.
Another survey in the UK, by KAM Insights, found 78 percent of Gen Z adopt a 'zebra striping' approach - alternating between alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks - compared with just two-thirds of adults.
Alcohol Beverages Council executive director Virginia Nicholls said there was also a growing preference for low-and zero-alcohol alternatives in New Zealand.
"Independent consumer research found that 55 percent of respondents said they drank low-alcohol beverages in the past year, up from 40 percent in 2020," she said.
"The most common reasons are because they were driving, tracking their beverage consumption, for health and wellbeing reasons and for a lower-calorie drink."
Nicholls said an increasing proportion of teenagers were choosing not to drink.
"The number of secondary school students who have never drunk alcohol has increased markedly, which is a really good thing.
"That then goes through to the cultural change we're seeing in the 18`- to 24-year-olds, who are obviously reducing significantly the amount of hazardous drinking that they're doing, and we know in New Zealand that this has declined in the last five years by 13.2 percentage points - from 35.8 percent which is pretty high, down to 22.6 percent in the last Health New Zealand study."
Nicholls added that there was also a cultural change in that now it was more socially acceptable not to drink.
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