Did people in the past drink far more than today? (United States)

by Mddcat04

So this question is inspired by a recent post I saw debunking the idea that people in the Middle Ages drank beer instead of water. I've heard it claimed that Americans in the past drank far more than we do today, especially before prohibition. However, when I went to look for some data, I found this graph which seems to indicate that per capita rates have hardly budged since 1850. Other (somewhat questionable) sources have drinking in the 1700s and early 1800s as far higher than today only to plunge down to roughly the current rate around the 1850s. Is this accurate? If so, what was the cause of that massive decline?

Kochevnik81

Yes.

A repost of an answer I wrote, with some comments edited together:

American drinking habits have definitely changed since the early 19th century. At that time it was common to consume hard alcohol in small quantities with every meal. Drinking was considered good for health, and 11 AM and 4 PM drinking breaks were common. Binging was especially a common way to consume, and even associated with personal freedom. Social drinking was seen as an important form of bonding, with British Capt. Frederick Marryat reporting local greetings of "Stranger, will you drink or fight?"

I've heard similar estimates to the 7 gallons of pure alcohol drunk by each American every year in the 1830s, and to put that into context, that's almost 26.5 liters of pure alcohol consumed by each person, on average, in a year.

According to the WHO, the highest annual per alcohol consumption per capita is Belarus at 14.4 liters (Russia is near that with 11.5 liters). The US is at 8.7 liters. It's worth noting that any average numbers like this overlook large differences in consumption by age, gender, and religious community, so for example for Russian men the consumption rate is 30.5 liters, while for US men it's 19 liters. Those are closer to the 26.5 liters, but that would similarly be more heavily clustered towards adult males.

The other important distinction is that 19th century US consumption was much more heavily weighted towards hard cider and distilled spirits like grain alcohol or whiskey, while today 2/3 of consumption is beer and wine.

What seems to have made a major difference is less the 1919-1933 Prohibition but the temperance movement that led up to Prohibition.

The American Temperance Society was co-founded by Lyman Beecher (father of Harriet Beecher Stowe), who delivered his Six Sermons on Intemperance in the same year. While the original goal was to encourage moderate drinking (beer and wine over spirits), this was quickly replaced by an emphasis on abstinence, which it encouraged through lectures, tracts, plays, and signed pledges. The movement had a dramatic impact, with average amount of pure alcohol consumed per person falling to 1.8 gallons (6.8 liters), which is actually a bit below the current consumption. Another estimate is that per capita consumption dropped by half by 1850, reflecting effectively half of the population abstaining (and the rest mostly drinking as before). Part of their success was in associating excessive drinking with Christian sin (especially as drinking among men in frontier regions was associated with gambling, fighting and seeking prostitution).

The Temperance movement continued its actions, with Maine becoming the first "dry" state (ie, it banned the production and sale of alcoholic beverages) in 1851. The movement also began to connect with other social reform causes, such as the women's movement (abstinence was seen as a means to alleviate families' poverty and reduce domestic abuse). The Womens Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1874 and quickly became a powerful organization, before being surpassed by the Anti Saloon League, founded in 1895, which pushed (successfully) for a constitutional amendment for national prohibition.

It's worth remembering that the repeal of prohibituon meant the repeal of national prohibition, but states gained and retain the power to ban all sale and consumption with their borders. Many Southern states were still "dry" after 1933, with Mississippi being the last to eliminate a statewide ban in 1966 (local bans still exist across the US). Per capita alcohol consumption rose in the 1950s-1970s, going a bit over 10 liters in the 1970s, before dropping in the 80s and 90s, and then having a slow rise to the current rate today.

This is the estimated legal consumption per capita for anyone 15 and older, except for Prohibition years, where the data set is pulling estimates from Rorabaugh for total alcohol consumption by adults.

These figures are gallons, apologies to metric users:

Year Spirits Wine Beer Total
1790 2.30 0.10 3.40 5.80
1800 3.30 0.10 3.20 6.60
1810 3.90 0.10 3.10 7.10
1820 3.90 0.10 2.80 6.80
1830 4.30 0.10 2.70 7.10
1840 2.50 0.10 0.50 3.10
1850 1.88 0.08 0.14 2.10
1860 2.16 0.10 0.27 2.53
1870 1.53 0.10 0.44 2.07
1871-80 1.02 0.14 0.56 1.72
1881-90 0.95 0.14 0.90 1.99
1891-95 0.95 0.11 1.17 2.23
1896-1900 0.77 0.10 1.19 2.06
1901-05 0.95 0.13 1.31 2.39
1906-10 0.96 0.17 1.47 2.60
1911-15 0.94 0.14 1.48 2.56
1916-19 0.76 0.12 1.08 1.96
1920-30 - - - 0.90
1934 0.29 0.07 0.61 0.97
1935 0.43 0.09 0.68 1.20
1936-41 0.63 0.14 0.77 1.54
1942-46 0.83 0.18 1.05 2.06
1947-50 0.73 0.20 1.07 2.00
1951-55 0.76 0.21 1.03 2.00
1956-60 0.82 0.22 0.98 2.02
1961-65 0.92 0.23 1.01 2.16
1966-70 1.09 0.26 1.10 2.45
1971 1.18 0.33 1.17 2.68
1972 1.12 0.31 1.20 2.63
1973 1.12 0.33 1.24 2.69
1974 1.10 0.31 1.25 2.66
1975 1.11 0.32 1.26 2.69
1976 1.09 0.33 1.26 2.68
1977 1.10 0.34 1.31 2.75
1978 1.12 0.36 1.34 2.82

Sources

W. J. Rorabaugh. "Alcohol in America". OAH Magazine of History Vol. 6, No. 2 Drug Use in History (Fall 1991).

Mark Lender and James Martin. Drinking in America: A History (The statistics, at least as used by Lender and Martin, come from Merton Hyman et al., Drinkers, Drinking, and Alcohol-Related Mortality and Hospitalizations: A Statistical Compendium.)

David Walker Howe. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848