View our editorial content guidelines to learn how we create helpful content with integrity and compassion. In addition to managing a successful family medical practice, Dr. Hoffman is board certified in addiction medicine by the American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine (AOAAM). Dr. Hoffman is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of AddictionHelp.com and ensures the website’s medical content and messaging quality. More Americans have used alcohol in the past year than any other drug or tobacco product. Alcohol-related deaths in Tennessee are much more likely to involve acute causes. Alcohol-related deaths in North Dakota are among the most likely to be due to chronic causes.
Young adults are more prone to relapse, partly due to peer influence and ongoing high-risk situations. Nonetheless, relapse is not failure – each attempt at sobriety can build coping skills and strengthen resilience. Gender remains one of the more prominent demographic variables in addiction research. Recognizing these differences is crucial for designing tailored outreach and treatment.
Health Impact
Globally, it is estimated that about 3 million deaths annually can be attributed to harmful alcohol use, highlighting a critical public health challenge. The repercussions of alcohol misuse are profound, impacting individuals and societies on numerous levels. A significant part of the alcohol abuse statistics & facts includes alcohol-related mortality rates, which offer a sobering perspective on the human cost of alcohol misuse. Misuse of alcohol carries significant health, social, and economic consequences. Alcohol consumption is known to be a risk factor for over 200 health conditions, including Drug rehabilitation diseases and injuries.
Substance Abuse Statistics
The best outcomes occur when individuals remain in treatment longer and have access to continuing care. Pinpointing when individuals typically begin substance use underscores the need for early intervention strategies. Racial and ethnic differences reveal disparate burdens of substance use, as well as uneven access to treatment services. Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is the most prevalent substance use disorder in the U.S.
Prevalence of Past-Month Drinking
The following overview explores recent patterns, key risk factors, and how each segment of the population is impacted – while highlighting the persistent challenges of treatment and relapse. Many of the risk factors for alcohol dependency are similar to those of overall drug use disorders (including illicit drug disorders). Further discussion on these risk factors can be found on our topic page on drug use.
Cardiovascular Effects of Alcohol
- Teenagers in Indiana are 4.39% less likely to have used drugs in the last month than the average American teen.
- Treatment innovations show promise through expanding digital health platforms and combination therapies.
- These regional variations align with total consumption projections showing continued upward trends through 2025.
Do not wait for the person to have all the symptoms, and be aware that a person ethanol abuse who has passed out can die. Unfortunately, although the standard drink (or alcoholic drink-equivalent) amounts are helpful for following health guidelines, they may not reflect customary serving sizes. A large cup of beer, an overpoured glass of wine, or a single mixed drink could contain much more alcohol than a standard drink. In addition, the percentage of pure alcohol varies within and across beverage types (e.g., beer, wine, and distilled spirits). According to WHO, worldwide alcohol causes 1.8 million deaths (3.2% of total) and 58.3 million (4% of total) of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Unintentional injuries alone account for about one third of the 1.8 million deaths, while neuro-psychiatric conditions account for close to 40% of the 58.3 million DALYs.
- Together, these approaches form a national blueprint for reducing excessive alcohol use, saving lives, and easing the economic burden on healthcare systems and communities.
- Provisional mortality data for 2024 show an unprecedented one-year 27 percent decrease in overdose deaths nationally.
- The drug crisis in Illinois, particularly the opioid epidemic, remains a severe public health challenge despite some positive interventions.
- Overall, these groups drink less, but a higher percentage will drink heavily when they do.
The data also show that much more needs to be done to ensure that the reductions in alcohol, drug overdose, and suicide deaths are occurring in every community and among all population groups. Alcohol misuse in adolescents can lead to serious long-term effects, including addiction, academic failure, and increased likelihood of engaging in dangerous behaviors. Importantly, alcohol-related incidents claim approximately 4,700 young lives annually, which surpasses deaths linked to all illegal drugs combined. This alarming statistic emphasizes the urgent need for effective prevention strategies to combat underage drinking and its lasting repercussions.
Alcohol Abuse Stats and Mortality Rate
In this study, the authors followed a cohort of more than 5,000 individuals with and without a mental health disorder (but without a drug use disorder) over a 10-year period. Following the ten-year period, they re-assessed such individuals for whether they had either nicotine, alcohol, or illicit drug dependency. It’s estimated that globally, around 1 percent of the population has an alcohol use disorder.
Respondents were asked if they drank any alcoholic beverages in the last seven days before the interview, and if so, how many drinks they had on each of the previous seven days. By taking the total number of drinks reported in the week for all respondents who drank, a crude estimate of the total number of drinks consumed in the year can be calculated. This can be done by multiplying the total drinks per week in the sample, weighted to represent the total drinks in the week for the population, by 52 weeks to scale up to the year. The total number of alcoholic drinks consumed, calculated in this way from the self-reported CCHS data, is about one-third of the amount from Statistics Canada’s published alcohol sales data. This suggests that there is an underreporting in self-reported alcohol consumption, and as a result, caution should be used when interpreting this self-reported data. When looking at the drinking habits of employed people, data from CCHS 2023 showed differences in weekly alcohol consumption by type of occupation.
Alcohol-Related Death Stats and Other Impacts on Health
Among adults aged 18 and older, the prevalence of AUD was 11.2%, indicating the impact of alcohol misuse in the adult population. Long-term heavy use of alcohol can lead to liver damage, including cirrhosis and alcoholic fatty liver disease. Alcohol is toxic to the liver, and excessive consumption can result in harm to liver cells 5.