Young New Zealanders are drinking and driving far less than they used to, with new Ministry of Justice figures showing the biggest falls in drink driving convictions are concentrated among the youngest drivers on the road.
The number of people convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs has fallen by nearly 10 percent over the past nine years, dropping from 16,647 convictions in 2016 to 15,048 in 2025. The headline number masks a much sharper change among younger drivers. Convictions are down 52 percent for those aged 19 and under, down 38 percent for people aged 20 to 24, and down 20 percent for those aged 25 to 29, according to figures reported by RNZ.
The pattern is not uniform across every age band. Over the same period convictions rose among people in their thirties and among those aged over 55, while rates were broadly unchanged for people aged 40 to 54. The gender split has barely moved, with four out of five people convicted of drink driving being men and one in five being women.
The data points to a generational shift in attitudes rather than a simple across-the-board improvement. The drivers who came of age with anti drink driving campaigns, restricted licence rules and a steady drumbeat of school education are now the ones least likely to end up in court for a drink driving charge. Their parents and grandparents, by contrast, are holding steady or going backwards.
That generational story lines up with what is happening to drinking itself. New Zealand Health Survey figures show hazardous drinking among people aged 18 to 24 fell by 13.2 percentage points over five years, dropping to 22.6 percent from 35.8 percent in 2018 and 2019. Drinking among 15 to 17 year olds has fallen 8.9 percentage points since the survey began tracking it in 2011 and 2012. Across all adults, hazardous drinking has eased to around 16 percent from a fifth of the population a few years earlier.
Virginia Nicholls, executive director of the New Zealand Alcohol Beverages Council, has linked the change to what young people are taught before they ever pick up a set of car keys. “Education in schools is helping to provide young people with practical information including how to say no to alcohol and that its okay not to drink,” she said. She has described the wider drop in heavy drinking as evidence of a broader change in habits, saying the reduction in hazardous drinking “shows the change in the way that we are drinking”.
The harder edge of enforcement has shifted too. Courts have been able to order alcohol interlock devices since 2018, fitting offenders’ cars with a unit that will not let the engine start if it detects alcohol on the driver’s breath. The devices are used for repeat offences and for first offences involving very high breath or blood alcohol readings. The number of people receiving an alcohol interlock order has risen 6.9 percent since 2019, suggesting the courts are leaning harder on technology to keep repeat offenders off the road rather than simply disqualifying them and hoping they comply.
There is little public appetite for going easy on the people who keep offending. A survey of 1,000 New Zealanders carried out by Curia Market Research found strong support for a range of tougher measures. Targeted support programmes for harmful drinkers drew 83 percent backing, while confiscating cars from repeat drink drivers and running alcohol education in schools each drew 78 percent. Heavier fines for drunk and disorderly behaviour were supported by 57 percent, workplace alcohol education by 54 percent, and alcohol interlocks in cars by 47 percent. The findings were published by the New Zealand Alcohol Beverages Council.
None of this means the problem has been solved. More than 15,000 people were still convicted of drink or drug driving last year, and the trend among older drivers is a reminder that the message is landing unevenly. The fact that convictions are rising among the over 55s, even as they tumble among teenagers, raises an awkward question about whether the safety messaging that has reshaped young people’s behaviour is reaching the drivers who learned to drink in a more permissive era.
Drink driving also remains a serious cause of death and injury on New Zealand roads, and a falling conviction count is not the same as zero harm. Convictions can be influenced by how much enforcement is happening as much as by how many people are offending, so a quieter year for police checkpoints can flatter the numbers. Even so, the convergence of falling convictions, falling youth drinking and falling teenage alcohol use is hard to read as anything other than a real change in how the next generation thinks about getting behind the wheel after a drink.
For a country that has spent decades trying to shift its drinking culture, the figures offer a rare piece of genuinely encouraging news. The young New Zealanders who grew up being told it is fine to say no appear to be taking that lesson onto the road with them.
What do you make of the drop in drink driving among young New Zealanders? Have attitudes really changed, or is there more to do? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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