Alcohol's Sobering Statistics

sober statisticsalcoholhealth and wellness

Oct 17

Written By Johanna Sullivan

Alcohol is everywhere in our society and it's been normalized to the point where brands are manipulatively trying to create loyalty with those even a decade younger than the legal drinking age.

I found this collection of statistics online. They're quite telling.

Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the United States.
In 2020, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, there was a 30% to 50% national increase in hospitalizations due to alcohol-associated liver disease, most of which is cirrhosis, meaning end-stage liver scarring.
The Rand Research Corporation found that Americans drank 14 percent more in 2020 — the rate for women rose by 41 percent.
The American Psychological Association’s Stress in America poll shows one in four adults (23 percent) reported drinking more alcohol to cope with their stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than half of all adults have a family history of alcoholism or problem drinking, and more than 7 million children live in a household where at least one parent is dependent on or has abused alcohol.
Excessive alcohol use is responsible for 2.5 million years of potential life lost annually, or an average of about 30 years of potential life lost for each death.
Up to 40 percent of all U.S. hospital beds (except for those being used by maternity and intensive care patients) are being used to treat health conditions that are related to alcohol consumption.
Every year in the U.S., roughly 5,000 people under the age of 21 die from an alcohol-related incident including car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning, and other related injuries.
Approximately 17 percent of men and 8 percent of women will be dependent on alcohol in their lifetime.
Many more people now die from alcohol and drug overdoses each year than are killed in automobile accidents, a stunning revelation.
Roughly one in seven people in the United States (14.6 percent of the population) are expected to develop a substance use disorder such as alcoholism at some point in their lives.
People who use alcohol before the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder later in life compared to those who have their first drink at age 20 or older.
An estimated 88,000 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
More than 10 percent of U.S. children live with a parent with alcohol problems.
Research indicates that alcohol use during the teenage years could interfere with normal adolescent brain development and increase the risk of developing alcoholism. In addition, underage drinking contributes to a range of acute consequences, including injuries, sexual assaults, and even deaths —including those from car crashes.
Each year, 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes.
About 1 in 4 college students report academic consequences from drinking, including missing class, falling behind in class, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.
In 2016, U.S. sites reported the prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) to be as high as 20 to 50 cases per 1,000.
In 2009, alcohol-related liver disease was the primary cause of almost 1 in 3 liver transplants in the United States.
Drinking alcohol increases the risk of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, pharynx, larynx, liver, and breast.