Although Macmillan Cancer Support, a UK-based cancer charity, is credited with starting Sober October in 2014, it can be said that the Sober October challenge became mainstream in the United States in 2019 when Joe Rogan announced he was taking up the challenge on his The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, inviting millions of listeners to join in the challenge.

Today, in the United States, where the Sober October movement and its companion Dry January are commonplace, recent analysis from IWSR points to millennials as a key demographic driving growth in the non-alcohol market.

In its Aug. 29 insight, titled “Millennials drive no-alcohol gains in the US,” IWSR analysis highlights that millennials are consuming non-alcohol products with greater frequency than other age cohorts and displaying a keenness in exploring the category through trial.

According to the latest data from IWSR Bevtrac, consumer research shows that 13% of U.S. drinkers said they consumed both full-strength and non-alcohol products in April 2024, up from 7% a year earlier. Among millennials, the participation rate was 22% — exceeding Gen Z (15%) and Gen X (11%), IWSR states.

“The no-alcohol category as a whole is gaining popularity amongst drinkers in the U.S., with participation rates doubling since April 2023 — and much of this increase is being driven by millennials,” said Nastya Timofeeva, senior insights manager for Bevtrac at IWSR, in a statement. “Greater product availability, especially in retail, has boosted momentum of the no-alcohol category in general — no-alcohol volumes grew 20% in 2023, with a forecast volume CAGR of plus 17%, 2023-28.”

The dominance of millennials in driving increased non-alcohol consumption continues to grow, according to IWSR consumer data.

For instance, in April 2023, 45% of non-alcohol beer consumers in the United States were millennials — by April 2024, that figure had risen to 61% — far ahead of Gen X at 22% and legal aged Gen Z at only 7%, IWSR notes. Similar participation rates are reported for non-alcohol spirits (66% of consumers are millennials) and non-alcohol wine (59%), it states.

Among key reasons that millennials are the age cohort boosting the non-alcohol segment — more occasions to socialize.

Millennials in the United States are the age cohort that currently displays the most significant positive shifts in their financial sentiment, according to IWSR. As a result, they say that they are going out and socializing more — both factors that help to drive increased consumption and exploration of the non-alcohol category, as well as the broader alcohol market, it states.

“Millennials also skew to heavier usage of beverage alcohol in general, when compared to the overall drinker population in the U.S., and are the only cohort with a wider repertoire in 2024 versus 2023,” Timofeeva added. “So, when they do moderate their alcohol consumption, they are doing so from a high level. The fact that millennial no-alcohol buyers are more likely to be frequent alcohol consumers highlights an overlap between no-alcohol and full-strength alcohol consumers.”

Millennials also over-index in terms of their participation in a number of full-strength categories in the United States, including total spirits, whisky, RTDs, rum, brandy/Cognac and Champagne.

“Almost half of millennial no-alcohol consumers are classed as ‘substituters’— in other words, those who drink no-alcohol products on some occasions, and full-strength on others — and they are also disproportionately frequent no-alcohol consumers, accounting for 51% of ‘frequent’ no-alcohol consumers in the U.S., and 47% of ‘consistent’ consumers,” according to IWSR.

Moreover, millennials are highly curious about the non-alcohol category and open to trial new products across the non-alcohol spectrum — and this willingness to experiment is likely to drive further category growth, IWSR states.

Furthermore, millennials are more likely than other groups to continue looking for non-alcohol brands that reflect their lifestyles and that can be used, for example, to create mocktails. Meanwhile, some 31% of millennial consumers abstain from beverage alcohol for a month or more due to lifestyle reasons, compared to 21% of the entire drinker population in the United States, according to IWSR consumer data.

As the non-alcohol category matures, it looks like millennials will play a key role in that future.