The data seems to indicate that half of American adults drink never or close to never.
My lived experience is much different; friends in their 20s/30s/40s drinking at every event and gathering. I live in an area full of very busy bars and restaurants with people drinking. Other wealthier areas are the same around the country. Traveling internationally, the story is the same. And even people like manual laborers drink a lot (I see construction workers regularly drinking on breaks, and I've known some personally), so it's not just a behavior amongst the college-educated professional crowd.
Maybe cities attract and sustain this behavior. People want to be around other people, to be around nightlife, etc. Characterization of this as a purely American problem (or a general problem America-wide) seems like a mistake given the numbers though.
My lived experience is much different; friends in their 20s/30s/40s drinking at every event and gathering. I live in an area full of very busy bars and restaurants with people drinking. Other wealthier areas are the same around the country. Traveling internationally, the story is the same. And even people like manual laborers drink a lot (I see construction workers regularly drinking on breaks, and I've known some personally), so it's not just a behavior amongst the college-educated professional crowd.
Maybe cities attract and sustain this behavior. People want to be around other people, to be around nightlife, etc. Characterization of this as a purely American problem (or a general problem America-wide) seems like a mistake given the numbers though.