ALCOHOL STATISTICS
THE SOBERING FACTS OF ALCOHOLISM
Alcohol abuse is the third leading cause of death in the US today. This disease debilitates people from any age, race or socio-economic background from Franklin Pierce the 14th President of the US, to Ernest Hemingway the renowned writer. In fact, 43% of US adults (about 76 million people) have been exposed to alcoholism in the family. All told, untreated addiction costs our country $400 billion a year. Yet, 82% of US doctors readily admit they avoid addressing alcohol dependency with patients.
Alcohol Abuse Statistics
- About 43% of US adults or 76 million people have been exposed to alcohol dependence in the family. They grew up with or married a compulsive drinker or had a blood relative who was a problem drinker.
- A total of 23 million Americans suffer from substance abuse addiction of which 18 million is alcohol related. Almost three times as many men as women are problem drinkers.
- In 1990, 68.3 percent of whites, 64.5 percent of Hispanics, and 55.6 percent of blacks used alcohol.
- More than nine million children live with a parent dependent on alcohol.
- 62% of high school seniors report that they have been drunk; 31% say that have had five or more drinks in a row during the last two weeks.
- Women make up 34% of the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) membership.
- Compulsive drinkers are about two times more likely to be divorced than those not dependent on alcohol.
- It is estimated that anywhere between 700,000 to two million Americans receive alcohol dependency treatment on any given day.
- Untreated addiction costs America $400 billion per year.
- Untreated addiction is more expensive than 3 of the nation's top 10 killers. It is 6 times more expensive than America's number one killer, heart disease, which costs $133.2 billion a year, 6 times more expensive than diabetes which costs $130 billion a year, and 4 times more expensive than cancer which is $96.1billion a year.
- Shortfalls in productivity and employment among individuals with alcohol or other drug-related problems cost the American economy $80.9 billion in 1992, of which $66.7 billion is attributed to alcohol and $14.2 billion to other drugs.
- The total cost of alcohol use by youth, including traffic crashes, violent crime, burns, drowning, suicide attempts, fetal alcohol syndrome, alcohol poisonings and treatment is more than $58 billion per year.
- Every American adult pays nearly $1,000 per year for the damages of addiction.
- Alcohol contributes to 100,000 deaths annually, making it the third leading cause of preventable mortality in the US, after tobacco.
- Between 20 and 30 per cent of male psychiatric admissions are alcohol dependent or have alcohol-related problems.
- 82% of doctors admit that physicians avoid addressing alcohol dependency in their patients.
- Fetal alcohol syndrome is the leading known cause of mental retardation.
- Surveys indicate that up to 11 percent of elderly patients admitted to hospitals exhibit symptoms of alcohol dependence, as do 20 percent of elderly patients in psychiatric wards. Yet hospital staff are significantly less likely to recognize alcohol dependence in an older patient than in a younger patient.
- 40 percent of all traffic fatalities are alcohol related.
- Although alcohol has not been directly implicated in U.S. commercial airline crashes, typical estimates of alcohol involvement by pilots in fatal general aviation crashes range up to 30 percent.
- Review of Coast Guard reports suggests alcohol involvement in 60 percent of boating fatalities, including persons who fell overboard.
- Post accident testing of railroad employees in 1990 showed that 3.2 percent tested positive for alcohol or other prohibited drugs.
- Between 48% and 64% of people who die in fires have blood alcohol levels indicating intoxication.
- Alcohol has been involved in violence caused by 86 percent of homicide offenders, 37 percent of assault offenders, 60 percent of sexual offenders, 57 percent of men and 27 percent of women involved in marital violence, and 13 percent of child abusers.
- Based on victim reports, each year 183,000 (37%) rapes and sexual assaults involve alcohol use by the offender, as do just over 197,000 (15%) robberies, about 661,000 (27%) aggravated assaults, and nearly 1.7 million (25%) simple assaults.
- A survey of female college students found a significant relationship between the amount of alcohol the women reported drinking each week and their experiences of sexual victimization.
- Studies of suicide victims in the general population show that about 20% of such suicide victims are alcohol dependent.
- One-quarter of all emergency room admissions, one-third of all suicides, and more than half of all homicides and incidents of domestic violence are alcohol-related.
- Drinking in the workplace can threaten public safety, impair job performance, and result in costly medical, social, and other problems affecting employees and employers alike. Alcohol-related job performance problems are caused not only by on-the-job drinking but also by heavy drinking outside of work. There is a direct relationship between the frequency of being “hungover” at work and the frequency of feeling sick at work, sleeping on the job, and having problems with job tasks or co-workers. Productivity losses attributed to alcohol were estimated at $119 billion for 1995.
- Up to 47% of industrial injuries can be linked to alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence.
