Alcohol Statistics & Drug Rehabilitation

Each year, a typical young person in the United States is inundated with more than 1,000 commercials for beer and wine coolers in addition to several thousand fictional drinking incidents on television.

Alcohol is involved in 50% of all driving fatalities.

In the United States, every 30 minutes, someone is killed in an alcohol related traffic accident.

Over 15 million Americans are dependent on alcohol. 500,000 are between the age of 9 and 12.

Each year the liquor industry spends almost $2 billion dollars on advertising and encouraging the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Americans spend over $90 billion dollars on alcohol each year.

On average, Americans may consume over 25 gallons of beer, 2 gallons of wine, and 1.5 gallons of distilled spirits each year.

Pregnant women who drink are feeding alcohol to their babies. Unfortunately the underdeveloped liver of the baby can only burn alcohol at half the rate of its mother, so the alcohol stays in the baby's system twice as long.

Each year, students spend $5.5 billion on alcohol. That is more than they spend on soft drinks, tea, milk, juice, coffee, or books combined.

56% of students in grade 5 to 12 say that alcohol advertising encourages them to drink.

6.6% of employees in full time jobs report heavy drinking, defined as drinking five or more drinks per occasion on five or more days in the past 30 days.

The highest percentage of heavy drinkers (12.2%) is found among unemployed adults between the age of 26 to 34.

Up to 40% of all industrial fatalities and 47% of industrial injuries can be linked to alcohol consumption and Alcoholism.

In 2000, almost 7 million persons age 12 to 20 were binge drinkers. That means about one in five persons under the legal drinking age were binge drinkers.

The 2001 survey shows 25 million (one in ten) Americans surveyed reported driving under the influence of alcohol. This report is nearly three million more than the previous year. Among young adults age 18 to 25 years, almost 23% drove under the influence of alcohol.

Drunk driving is proving to be even deadlier than what we previously knew. The latest death statistics released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), using a new method of calculation, shows that 17,488 people where killed in alcohol related traffic accidents last year. This report represents nearly 800 more people were killed than the previous year.

Alcohol is the number 1 drug problem in America.

43% of Americans have been exposed to Alcoholism in their families.

Nearly 1 out of 4 Americans admitted to hospitals have alcohol problems or are undiagnosed alcoholics being diagnosed for alcohol related consequences.

Alcohol and alcohol related problems are costing the American economy at least $100 million in health care and loss of productivity every year.

Four in ten criminal offenders report alcohol as a factor in violence.

Among spouse violence victims, three out of four incidents were reported to have involved alcohol use by the offender.

In 1996, local law enforcement agencies made an estimated 1,467,300 arrests nationwide for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Did You Know? ...
Interesting Facts and Statistics:

Opiates and similar drugs that include Vicodin, work to increase the amount of dopamine in the brain; the purpose of this is for the user to feel a state of euphoria as opposed to pain.

Among young adults 18 to 22 years old, full-time college students were less likely to be current cigarette smokers than their peers who were not enrolled full time in college. Cigarette use in the past month in 2008 was reported by 27.2 percent of full-time college students, less than the rate of 40.6 percent for those not enrolled full time.

Amphetamine is one of a series of compounds related to the plant derivative ephedrine.

The annual number of new daily smokers aged 12 to 17 decreased from 1.1 million in 1997 to 747,000 in 2000. This translates into a reduction from 3,000 per day to 2,000 per day in the number of teens who begin smoking on a daily basis.

In 2008, among the 4.0 million persons aged 12 or older who received treatment for alcohol or illegal drug use in the past year, 2.2 million persons received treatment at a self help group, and 1.5 million received treatment at a rehabilitation facility as an outpatient. There were 1.1 million persons who received treatment at a mental health center as an outpatient, 743,000 persons who received treatment at a rehabilitation facility as an inpatient, 675,000 at a hospital as an inpatient, 672,000 at a private doctor's office, 374,000 at an emergency room, and 343,000 at a prison or jail. None of these estimates changed significantly between 2007 and 2008 or between 2002 and 2008, except that the number of persons who received treatment at a rehabilitation facility as an inpatient in 2008 was lower than that in 2007 (1.0 million) and 2002 (1.1 million).

Nationally in 2002, about 3.0 percent of persons aged 12 or older were dependent on or had abused illegal drugs in the past year (Table A.15). The District of Columbia had the highest rate of illegal drug abuse or dependence for persons aged 12 or older (4.3 percent), and Kansas had the lowest rate (2.5 percent). Most of the States in the highest fifth were in the West (six States). Only four of the States in the top fifth for illegal drug dependence or abuse also were in the top fifth for alcohol dependence or abuse among persons aged 12 or older: District of Columbia, Montana, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. Rhode Island had the highest rate for illegal drug dependence or abuse among persons aged 18 to 25 (13.9 percent); Vermont had the highest rate among teens (8.8 percent). There were no States common to the highest fifth for all three age groups (12 to 17, 18 to 25, and 26 or older).

Alcohol Statistics

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