It's historically been part of Aussie culture to enjoy a night out with mates by downing a few coldies. But research shows that young people are increasingly shunning that way of life.

Stats from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that not only are young people drinking less than older Australians, but they're waiting longer before having their first taste of alcohol.

The percentage of 12 to 17 year-olds who are abstaining from booze has increased from 72 per cent in 2013, to 82 per cent in 2016. And the average age of their first drink has climbed from 14.4 years old in 1998, to 16.1 years old.

Have you given up booze? Or is drinking still a big part of your life? Send us an email, or get in touch via our Facebook DMs.

According to a triple j survey of more than 6600 people aged 14 to 24, nearly six per cent of respondents said they hadn't touched alcohol in the last 12 months. That's compared to three per cent of 25 to 39 year-olds. Of the young people who said they did drink, nearly one in five of them said they only drank on special occasions or less.

"This was something that was happening across the whole population - across rich and poor young people, across every state, across city and country ," Dr Michael Livingston from the Centre of Alcohol Policy Research at La Trobe University told Hack.

I think we are seeing a change in the centrality of alcohol to people's lives, and it's a really encouraging, promising change."

Australia's not alone. This trend is playing out through much of the western world.

"This change has been occurring in much of the high-income world since the early to mid 2000s," Michael said.

"We've seen rates of drinking for 15 years in Canada drop by more than half, the UK drop by more than half - in almost all of the Nordic countries there's been a major decline in underage drinking."

Young people are better at curbing risky drinking behaviour, too. The number of men aged 18 to 24 drinking at risky levels (which is classified as two or more drinks every day) has declined from 39 per cent in 2007, to 23 per cent now.

But the number of at-risk men over the age of 40 has barely changed.

Binge drinking unchanged

Young people are still the most likely to get into trouble for binge drinking, Michael says.

"If we look at things like admissions to emergency departments, or ambulance call-outs, or even police data in some states, we don't see the big declines in these really serious harms," he said.

Rates of underage drinking in boys has declined sharply so that they're now on par with women, but as they age, that parity ends.

"Once you turn 18 and above, the gender differences are quite stark. Men tend to drink about twice as much as women in adulthood," Michael said.

While young people are shunning the Sunday morning hangover, older people are upping the ante.

"We're seeing increases in levels of drinking of the Baby Boomer generation. They're drinking more than they were five or 10 years ago," Michael said.

Why are young people turning away from booze?

The crux of it is that it's getting more and more acceptable to say no - even in the most macho strongholds of boozing culture.

"Australia has a long history of rural towns and cultures being very masculine, very risk-taking, and alcohol plays a big part in that. But what's interesting is that even in those areas which still drink more than those in the cities, the decline is the same," Michael said.

Drinking for young people in rural areas is falling as fast as young people in the city. It's still higher, but it's on the way down."

But why that culture is changing is a bit more complicated, according to researchers.

Part of it is that more and more Australians are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds - cultures that don't emphasize drinking quite so much.

A whopping 28 per cent of Australians were born overseas, according to the most recent census - and that's not taking into account those of us who have one or both parents from different countries.

That's having an impact on our drinking culture, Michael said.

They bring that culture with them. They tend to drink at lower levels than people who have grown up in Anglo cultures."

Michael reckons technology has played a role in stifling drinking culture, too.

"If you're finding new ways to meet people, maybe you don't have to go to the local pub, or drink in the park with your mates."

And we can't look past the cash factor.

"The financial and time pressures are different than they were 20 years ago. Work insecure jobs, difficult hours, it's not always paid very well, not able to get into the housing market - there's all of those different life pressures that young people are feeling," Michael said.

That's a problem that's played out across the globe.

"In many countries this decline [in drinking] accelerated after the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. So there's potentially some economic component to it," Michael said.

And for those who argue that booze is simply being replaced by harder drugs? Guess again.

"It's all part of this shift we're seeing in teenagers. They're less likely to use illicit drugs, they're less likely to drink, and when they do they're drinking later," Michael said.