Situations that once included alcohol are off the table for some, instead replaced by other activities (Credit: Getty Images) The decline in youth drinking, according to experts, is remarkable and widespread in most high-income European countries, as well as the US, Australia and New Zealand.Gen Zers are growing up in a unique social landscape where, weighed down by financial and societal worries, they’re more risk averse.“[The decrease in alcohol consumption is] certainly not happening because of alcohol policy, because all risky practices are going down – drug use, unprotected sex, risky behaviours [like smoking, crime and driving hazardously] – young people are more risk averse in general,” says Amy Pennay, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at La Trobe University, Melbourne.Google research in 2019 by showed 41% of Gen Zers associate alcohol with “vulnerability”, “anxiety” and even “abuse" For example, concern about losing control and developing a drinking addiction is markedly heightened among young people.John Holmes, professor of alcohol policy at the University of Sheffield, adds there’s also been a stark attitudinal shift; not only do Gen Zers have a deeper awareness of health risks, but they also actively shun the notion of drunkenness."