---
title: "Myth Debunked: Are Digital Natives the Sober Generation? "
description: New research has demolished one of the decade's most repeated generational myths, and handed the actual title of 'generation of moderation' to an entirely di...
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-07-20T09:00:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-20T10:07:36.171Z
canonical: https://richdadmagazine.com/article/myth-debunked-are-digital-natives-the-sober-generation
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-chilled-beer-bottles-and-glasses-on-a-table-by-the-water-dur-34617926.jpg
categories: Lifestyle
region: Global
publication: Rich Dad Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

For the better part of a decade, one generational fact repeated itself across enough headlines to stop being questioned. Gen Z, the story went, had quietly rejected drinking, trading bars for mocktails and hangovers for wellness, the first generation in living memory to actually grow more sober than the one before it. New research from IWSR, the beverage alcohol data firm whose twice yearly Bevtrac survey tracks 26,000 drinkers across fifteen markets, has just taken that story apart with a single number.

Seventy four per cent of legal drinking age Gen Z adults have had a drink in the past six months, IWSR's latest survey found, up from 66 per cent three years ago and now sitting almost exactly level with the 76 per cent rate recorded across the entire adult population. IWSR's president, Marten Lodewijks, did not hedge in his own summary of the finding. The narrative that Gen Z is the generation of moderation, he said, is now conclusively debunked.

## The twist nobody saw coming

---

*This article is only available to registered readers. Visit the article URL to read the full piece.*