I know I shouldn’t be impressed, but I can’t help thinking that’s a great effort for a cohort in which the youngest is now 75 years old

Our relationship with alcohol is also highly related to when we were born. In fact, regular drinking is one of the clearest examples of a cohort effect we’ll see in this book. Figure 5.2 tracks the proportions of cohorts in England who have said they drink alcohol on five or more days a week over the last 20 years. The lines are incredibly flat, with a strict generational hierarchy and extremely consistent gaps between each. Around three in ten of the Pre-War generation drink alcohol five or more days a week; as far as we can tell, they always have and always will. I know I shouldn’t be impressed, but I can’t help thinking that’s a great effort for a cohort in which the youngest is now 75 years old.

B. Duffy, The Generation Divide (2023), loc. 2,049