Spring Break 2025: College Binge Drinking in Context

Spring break is a wild time for some college students nationwide. It can also be an extremely dangerous time, because some students engage in reckless behavior, taking drinks from strangers they just met, drinking to excess, and losing control over their own behavior. On the plus side, the news among high school students is mostly good, and many report avoiding alcohol altogether, including in very large nationwide studies. In 2024, 14% of teens reported consuming alcohol in the past 30 days, marking a 43% decline since 2015 and a 69% decrease since 1991. Approximately 22% reported alcohol consumption in the past 30 days, a 39% decrease from 35% in 2015.

But does this newfound caution “stick” for students when they go off to college? It might; for example, recent research showed 21.9% of college students engaged in binge drinking in 2023. This was significantly lower than the 27.7% binge-drinking rate in 2022, a year earlier. The rate also was the lowest since 1980 for college men (24.4%), and a significant decrease among college women. In addition, alcohol use in the past 30 days reached a new historic low of 55% in 2023, down from 62% in 2022.

Possible Reasons College Students Have Changed Drinking Patterns

Jessi Gold, M.D.

Source: Elijah Wilkerson, used with permission

I asked psychiatrist Jessi Gold, M.D., M.S., Chief Wellness Officer, University of Tennessee System of 62,000 students and 19,000 faculty and staff, and bestselling author of HOW DO YOU FEEL, her opinions on college students drinking and changes she's noticed over the past few years. First, Dr. Gold issued a caution. “While binge drinking is down, it is still common. Most students, when they drink, still drink to excess, and it affects their health, grades, and retention. That said, we are seeing a trend for people to want to be sober, and I hear this from the people on campus in counseling and outreach and conduct.”

She notes that sobriety has become more acceptable on social media or among celebrities, as many people seek to be more "well" (including their mental health). She says, “I believe students are more aware of risks, and I also think more people are ‘sober curious.’ There are also more options for social activities without drinking, and even mocktails on menus, so people feel less isolated and ‘uncool’ making that decision for themselves.”

Gold also notes, “We are seeing larger proportions of our students coming in already in recovery. Also, most campuses have a peer support/recovery group on campus to help those students stay sober and create community.”

A Look at the Data

The 2024 Monitoring the Future study found that past 12-month alcohol use among 12th graders declined from 75% in 1997 to 42% in 2024. Binge drinking, defined as consuming five or more drinks in a row, has also seen significant reductions. According to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), approximately 46.3% of full-time college students aged 18 to 22 reported drinking alcohol in the past month, with 27.9% engaging in binge drinking during that period.

In 2022, 30.5% of young adults reported binge drinking in the past two weeks, reflecting a decrease over the past decade from 35.2% in 2012. Alcohol consumption patterns differ between college students and their non-college counterparts. For example, 62.5% of college students reported alcohol use compared with 54.1% of non-college young adults.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that alcohol use and binge drinking among high school students have generally decreased in recent decades. Notably, more high school girls now drink alcohol and binge drink compared to high school boys, a shift from previous years.

Some College Students Are Still Binge Drinking

Despite all the good news about much less drinking, some college students still engage in heavy or even binge drinking. What are the main reasons for excessive drinking today? Gold says college is still a time of experimentation and identity development. She explains that college students tend to exhibit more risky behavior, largely because of their age and still-developing brain. In addition, alcohol has long been associated with the college experience—especially sports or fraternity/sorority life. Students are also affected by their peers.

“Students want to make friends and fit in,” says Gold. She says there’s a human desire for connection, and if students believe connection comes primarily from parties and drinking (or only from parties and drinking), then they will go to parties and drink to fit in.

Why Does the Media Still Depict College Students Engaging in Drunken Behavior?

Alcoholism Essential Reads

Can Heavy Drinkers Learn to Moderate?

Rethinking Drinking

Despite the good news on less drinking and binge drinking among college students, most media reports show intoxicated students on spring break engaging in silly or dangerous behavior. These depictions could make it seem like nearly all college students are drunk, drunk driving, or having multiple sexual encounters.

Why is that? My theory is that the media knows sex and problem behavior sells, and just saying more students are not using alcohol, cannabis, or tobacco isn’t clickbait or newsworthy to media outlets. We expect college students to drink too much, and so that is what we are looking for. How many or few college students go to spring break nowadays to drink, use drugs, or hook up? Few. But sober students behaving calmly and responsibly are just not that interesting to newspapers and television reporters.

Summary

Synaptic density deficits are evident, even in people with mild-to-moderate AUD, with greater deficits in those with greater drinking severity. Among people with AUD, lower synaptic density in the frontal cortex and striatum was related to a greater number of drinks per drinking day and trended in the same direction for alcohol drinking quantity and alcohol use severity.

Taken together, these findings suggest that chronic alcohol use contributes to dose-dependent synaptic loss, and that synaptic restoration—the process of repairing or rebuilding lost or damaged brain connections—may be a promising treatment strategy for AUD. According to the 2024 Monitoring the Future survey, lifetime, annual, past-month consumption, and binge drinking levels are below pre-pandemic levels and at historically low levels. This is good news for many reasons. The average time of escalation from first drink to high-intensity drinking (eight or more drinks in a row for women; 10 or more drinks in a row for men) occurs within two years of first trying alcohol. About two-thirds (67 percent) of American teens currently report they have never consumed alcohol in their lifetime.