An often-overlooked preventive factor involves the continuing influence of parents. Research shows that students who choose not to drink often do so because their parents discussed alcohol use and its adverse consequences with them. Drinking at college has become a ritual that students may see as an integral part of their higher education experience. Some students come to college with established drinking habits, and the college environment can lead to a problem.
Reported Reasons for Vaping Among U.S. Adolescents (2021-
Other states in the Mountain West and Northern Plains also rank alarmingly high. Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota all post mortality rates between 58 and 65 per 100,000, placing them well above the national average. These figures are not just statistics; they reflect thousands of lives lost annually to liver disease, drunk-driving crashes, alcohol poisoning, and alcohol-linked cancers. More recent research by the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research suggests that in 2022, alcohol was to blame for 9,500 cancer cases and 3,800 cancer deaths in Canada.
National Center for Health Statistics
- The states set the goal at 2.1 gallons or less per year, and the average was 2.35 gallons.
- It’s estimated 11% of the U.S. population has a diagnosable alcohol use disorder.
- Teenagers in Rhode Island are 1.73% more likely to have used drugs in the last month than the average American teen.
- Alcohol-related deaths in Idaho are more likely to be older, chronic alcohol users.
The national median is 1.8 binge drinking occasions per month, but at the 75th percentile, that number jumps to 4.4—meaning a significant portion of binge drinkers are doing so weekly or more. These figures reveal the need for geographically tailored public health interventions, especially in high-burden states where repeated binge episodes contribute disproportionately to alcohol-related harm. The IHS has provided treatment for alcohol abuse and alcoholism since its inception in 1975. In addition to numerous tribally based programs, the agency currently funds 7 regional treatment facilities for women and 12 for adolescents. In the past decade, much of the central responsibility for running those programs has shifted from the Federal Government and the IHS to tribal control. Accompanying the trend toward tribal control is a movement toward the use of traditional cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices in treatment.
- Today’s belief that moderate alcohol consumption is unhealthy follows increases from 28% in 2018 and 39% in 2023 to 45% a year ago.
- The first six weeks of freshman year are a vulnerable time for heavy drinking and alcohol-related consequences because of student expectations and social pressures at the start of the academic year.
- However, by lowering inhibitions and impairing judgement, alcohol can increase both aggression and our willingness to take risks.
- Early drug abuse corelates with substance abuse problems later in life, and the most significant increases in destructive behavior appear to take place among older teens and young adults.
- The charts show global consumption of wine, first in terms of wine as a share of total alcohol consumption, and then the estimated average consumption per person.
Alcohol-related deaths by age

These increased risks are not observed in people who carry the variant but do not drink alcohol. Among both Indian and non-Indian adolescents, drug and alcohol alcoholism statistics use are much more tightly coupled than they are among adults. Nearly all adolescent drug users also use alcohol, and more than one-half of adolescent alcohol users use drugs at some level. It is likely that adolescent drug use and adolescent alcohol use have many of the same causes and consequences.
Binge drinking, by the numbers

Teenagers in Massachusetts are 25.26% more likely to have used drugs in the last month than the average American teen. Teenagers in Maryland are 9.76% more likely to have used drugs in the last month than the average American teen. Teenagers in Maine are 43.40% more likely to drug addiction treatment have used drugs in the last month than the average American teen. Teenagers in Louisiana are equally as likely to have used drugs in the last month as the average American teen.
Prevalence
Adults who regularly felt worried, nervous, or anxious (7.0%) and adults who regularly felt depressed (7.6%) were more likely than adults without these feelings to engage in heavy drinking in the past year (Figure 3). Underage drinking among U.S. teens has declined over the last 20 years, according to the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey. In 2023, 46% of 12th graders said they had consumed alcohol in the 12 months prior to the survey, as did 31% of 10th graders and 15% of eighth graders. These shares are down from 2001, when 73% of 12th graders, 64% of 10th graders and 42% of eighth graders said they had drunk alcohol in the previous year. Most adults who consume alcohol have done so recently, according to the July Gallup survey.
Data on the share who don’t drink alcohol by gender and age group in the UK is available here. Here, we see particularly high levels of alcohol abstinence across North Africa and the Middle East. In most countries in this region, the majority of adults have never drunk alcohol. Alcohol consumption – whilst a risk factor for a number of health outcomes – typically has the greatest negative impacts when consumed within heavy sessions.
Adult women on the whole drink less alcohol than men and have lower rates of alcohol-related disease and death. However, studies show women’s rates of drinking and binge drinking have increased over time, narrowing the gap between the sexes. Since women are more susceptible to certain alcohol-related harms — in part due to having bodies that absorb alcohol well and take longer to process it — they are also increasingly facing the consequences of heavy drinking. There is strong scientific evidence that alcohol drinking can cause cancer (1, 2). The National Toxicology Program has listed consumption of alcoholic beverages as a known human carcinogen in its Report on Carcinogens since the ninth edition, in 2000. States with lower alcohol excise taxes and fewer restrictions on sales (such as Wisconsin and Iowa) create easier access, which has been linked by public health researchers to higher binge drinking prevalence.
