College Drinking Rates at Record Low

Way down from the free-for-all days of 1982, survey finds

Despite what pop culture may tell you, college-age youth aren't the party boys and girls folks often think they are.

Yahoo!'s Lylah Alphonse reports that according to a survey of nearly a million freshman youth on college campuses across the country, only 33% of them reported drinking in 2012. This is down 2 points from 2011 and a whopping 40 points from the, er, high point in 1982, when 73.7% of freshman copped to enjoying libations.

It's representative of a newer, more serious-minded attitude among college youth, who are perhaps being sobered by their poor employment prospects upon leaving school.

"[The study] found that an all-time high of 87.9 percent of freshman said they were attending college 'to be able to get a better job,'" writes Alphonse, "a stark contrast to students in 1976, just 67.8 percent of whom said that job prospects played a part in their decision to go to college."

Via Yahoo!.

What do you think explains the drop in alcohol consumption by college kids?

[cleverusername]

and pot smoking at an all time "high"....just having a little pun :)

[mimi57]

I was thinking the same thing... ( :

[cleverusername]

@mimi57 :)

[mxdirtdude]

Id rather the pot use to be high if it makes the alcohol use be low.

[Hireman]

Pot has also become mainstream and is never confused with drinking in these surveys.

[DerivePI]

No need to consume a depressant to be depressed these days.

[ctc]

It's the "Facebook Effect"....there's a generation of college graduates that opened-up about their drinking and partying on-line....and they're still unemployed.
So yeah....they're lying.

[TheJimmy]

Being young just isn't as fun as it used to be. Glad to not be a youngster these days because I'd be bored out of my mind.

[Speedieg]

Kids today are under a lot more pressure and there futures are far from certain. They no longer have the luxury of partying and then making it later. Also with the rise of social media and the amount of avail information they behavior is available for all to see. I'm grateful there were no cell phone cameras when I was young and my bad behavior is securely lost in time.

[Thunderchicken]

Your lucky. My "freinds" have been blackmailing me with those damn pictures for thirty years.

[tomincali]

the kids at the uc in town must not of got the memo

[WMCOL]

They are making choices between boozing and choosing those things that are necessities in their life, like shelter, transportation, food, healthcare. Booze ain't cheap.

Many folks are being squeezed very hard and have to juggle entertainment(TV, Booze, Movies, Concerts, etc.) with food, shelter, utilities, medicine, and healthcare.

Every entity wants more from us, taxes local, state, and federal. Utility companies. Subscription TV. Internet provider. Virus companies. Food cost.

Some in heavily populated areas are getting outside antennaes for local coverage and droping subscription TV and using internet and local AM/FM stations.

Demands are being made on income much faster than it is increasing. Something has to give.

[PayThatCEO]

That's where the consumer has to make the decision to say no. Just because something is for sale doesn't mean you have to buy it. We've dumped cable TV and use the internet to watch shows. We're not interested in movies so we neither go to the theater or pay for movie channels. Virus companies? Really? Subscription radio? Waste of money.

Food costs are something you can control if you take the time. Utilities can be controlled to some degree. Our heating and A/C system is very old and inefficient and I'm not in the position to replace it right now, so we got a few space heaters for the house and we've not needed the furnace at all this winter. Granted, we're in the south and our winters aren't horrible, but our summers are extremely long and hot. We purchased window units for a couple of rooms and dropped the summer electricity bill by almost $200.00 a month! Maybe I'll never replace that central HVAC system.

My car is 18 years old. It's well paid for, runs perfectly fine because it's been maintained well and it looks presentable. Why should I go into debt for something else? My insurance is next to nothing and I'm not making some bank rich off of interest.

Yes, something does have to give and it's not going to be me. I find ways around being the victim of a consumer market that is out of control. There's nothing wrong with living modestly and saying no to expenses that truly aren't necessary.

[WMCOL]

@PayThatCEO
Truly a person after my own heart. Am now in the process of getting an outside antenna to get local free stations, and am cancelling subscription TV. They say the prices are not fixed but they all come within a few dollars of each other. They say it is the program providers that raise the prices. So the only way to get lower prices is for me to drop all of the subscription providers by dropping subscription TV.

[DARSB]

After seeing prospective employers demand access to Facebook accounts as part of job screening - and otherwise qualified applicants denied for ill-considered FB photos - young people are less forthcoming about their private lives. Ample motive for lying to nosey strangers.

[seedtick]

I think that the war on alcohol abuse is doing more to inform highschool kids. Notice that this is a poll by Freshmen. Give 'em a couple of years...the numbers will probably go up.
Oh, and one other thing...ask how many are doing pot...it seems to be the darling substance of choice nowdays.

[Canoochee]

Pot and other drugs like Meth are much easier for a college aged kid to obtain than alcohol. Yet alcohol is legal. Maybe a lesson somewhere in that statement?

[Mbjhug]

I think it's still very rampant. They are just wising up and being much less vocal about it.

[stepped_in_it]

I've known a few alcoholics in my lifetime! They also denied their addiction!

[Chromalord]

Heroin and coke make for better study aids, and are easier to buy than alcohol and tobacco. College has become primarily an institution for those with or from means, and an alcohol buzz is the cheapest by far, so I cannot imagine that finances is any type of deterrent.

[Clarke12]

I would be interested in the stats on graduation rates and school performance during the same period.

[MongoAPillager]

My God,we have been drinking and voting,Obama's back in,we better sober up and pay attention!!!

[falco_alba]

None of the above. Tuition is high and college is considered a necessity nowadays. Put two and two together. Poor and desperate.

[Keyjo]

It's the economy, Stupid!

[Buzzfriendly]

Students have come to the conclusion that adderall helps you study AND party. No alcohol needed.

[MadAmerican]

CHILD PLEASE!

[Happy2BeHere]

The new "designer drugs" have a lot to do with the decline in drinking. Who needs to drink when there are so many other more inticing ways of getting "high."