How ‘generation sensible’ took over from teen ‘peak drinkers’

TOASTING the millennium left many of us feeling worse for wear – but none more so than Britain’s turn-of-the-century teenagers.

Those who became 18 around the year 2000 were modern “peak drinkers”, says the Office for National Statistics (ONS), while today’s young adults have swapped the pub for the gym.

Home Office research just before the millennium suggested young Britons had hit peak booze, with almost four in five 18 to 24-year-olds saying they had drunk alcohol in the past seven days.

By 2005, the figure had fallen to two thirds, and the most recent data from 2017 says just over half of young people had had a drink in the previous week.

The figures suggest that “the 18-yearolds of the new millennium may have been ‘peak drinkers’”, the ONS said.

By contrast, today’s teens have been called “generation sensible”. Figures suggest they are less likely than their predecessors to engage in binge drinking, drug-taking and unprotected sex.

They also spend more time alone at home, though they may be in touch with friends via text or social media.

Last year’s data recorded just a quarter of teenagers who said they smoked.

Teenage pregnancy also declined. The birth rate for women aged 18 fell by 58 per cent between 2000 and 2016.

The number of teenage marriages has fallen, with 683 18-year-olds marrying in 2015 compared to 3,693 in 2000. Women who marry men for the first time now do so at an average age of 31, while the equivalent average age for men marrying women is 33.

Compared to those who came of age at the millennium, today’s 18-year-olds spend eight minutes longer on average per day on sports and exercise, 17 minutes more on using computers, including social media, and 31 minutes more on games, including computer games.

But they spend 27 minutes less per day socialising in person, and the time they spend watching television has fallen by almost the same amount.

Today’s 18-year-olds are also more likely to be “economically inactive”, with more going to university than in 2000. The ONS suggests this is partly a result of the financial crisis, after which non-working 18-year-olds, mostly students, outnumbered those in work.

Modern teenagers are also likely to live longer. Men aged 18 in 2000 could expect to live until 85, while women of the same age could expect to reach 88. But today’s 18-year-old men are expected to live until almost 88 and women can expect to live to 90.