The Future on Tap: Where America’s Next BevAl Opportunity Takes Shape

The Future on Tap report is the product of a collaboration between NIQ and World Data Lab, two global leaders combining the Full View of consumer behavior with the world’s most advanced predictive spending models. By uniting NIQ’s unmatched coverage with World Data Lab’s globally consistent, peer-reviewed methodology, this report delivers the most complete generational lens on Beverage Alcohol. Built from the most granular shopper data and forward-looking projections, this collaboration quantifies beyond where consumers are today, but where the category is heading next, and what brands must do to stay ahead.reviewed methodology, this report delivers looking projections, this collaboration quantifies

A Guide to the Generational Journey of U.S. Beverage Alcohol Buyers

America is on the edge of a generational turning point in beverage alcohol. One that is shaped by deep structural shifts in income, demographics, and spending power. The signals are unmistakable. And the brands that act now will own the decade ahead.

A Category Powered by the U.S. and Pulled Forward by the Rich

The U.S. represents one-third of global consumer spending and nearly 30% of all in-home alcohol spending; an outsized gravitational force in the worldwide BevAl landscape.
But the story beneath those numbers is even more defining: U.S. alcohol growth is already concentrated almost entirely in the rich: Households spending $130+/day. And that concentration will only intensify. By 2030, the rich alone will account for 74% of all U.S. alcohol spending. thirdhome alcohol spending

Inside the U.S. Consumer Wallet: Beer & RTD Lead the Charge

Of the $221B Americans spend on in-home alcohol today, half goes to beer and RTD. Wine and spirits will grow but beer and RTD remain the anchor categories in both volume and momentum.
By 2034, total in-home alcohol spending will reach $300B, with all three major categories expanding, but beer and RTD retaining their dominance in absolute dollars.

A Generational Passing of the Torch

Younger adults today (21+ legal drinking age) drink differently than previous generations did at the same age. The reasons are structural: shifting demographics, new lifestyle priorities, and changing relationships with alcohol. Meanwhile, as consumers age, their spending power and alcohol preferences evolve in predictable and highly monetizable ways.

Youth or age aren’t the defining factors driving the future. The future is driven by generational characteristics.

The Power Curve of Spending

The median “rich consumer” today sits between $130–$314/day, and by 2030, the midpoint rises to $369/day. Growth is coming not from the ultrawealthy, but from the newly rich: the households stepping into higher income brackets and reshaping category demand as they do.

This is the new center of gravity: economically stable, upwardly mobile, and increasingly decisive in alcohol category growth.

What’s Ahead: A Decade Defined by Precision

The next era of BevAl belongs to brands that can read spending power, generational shifts, and category momentum in the same frame. That’s exactly what this report delivers: direction. It defines where growth concentrates, which generations command the future, and how category share evolves as households climb the income ladder.

This is the view you need before your competitors have it.

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