This interactive chart shows the average share of household expenditure that is spent on alcohol. Drug use disorders are often classified within the same category as mental health disorders — research and data on mental health can be found on our topic page here. You and your community can take steps to improve everyone’s health and quality of life. Binge-drinking is a significant problem in Wisconsin, and alcohol-related deaths are more likely to involve older, long-term users. Virginia has fewer alcohol-related deaths per capita than most other states.

This data is based on estimates of prevalence and treatment published by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the chart, we see the relationship between average per capita alcohol consumption – in liters of pure alcohol per year – versus gross domestic product (GDP) per capita across countries. The charts show global consumption of spirits, which are distilled alcoholic drinks, including gin, rum, whisky, tequila, and vodka.

Prevalence of alcohol use disorders

• Pennsylvania’s alcohol-related deaths are less likely to be due to chronic causes.
• Alcohol can also be extremely addictive and cause major health problems to frequent users.
• Only about 7.2% of people who had alcohol use disorder in the past year received treatment in the past year.
• Jessica graduated from the University of South Florida (USF) with an English degree and combines her writing expertise and passion for helping others to deliver reliable information to those impacted by addiction.
• Statistics indicate Ohio’s drinking habits are on par with national averages.
• 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.

Massachusetts has one of the nation’s lowest rates of under-21 alcohol-related drinking deaths. Kentucky is a statistical anomaly with a low rate of underage drinking deaths and a low rate of chronic causes. California sees the nation’s highest number of alcohol-related Alcohol stats deaths but has a low rate of underage drinking. Find up-to-date statistics on lifetime drinking, past-year drinking, past-month drinking, binge drinking, heavy alcohol use, and high-intensity drinking. A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights that 2.6 million deaths per year were attributable to alcohol consumption, accounting for 4.7% of all deaths, and 0.6 million deaths to psychoactive drug use. Notably, 2 million of alcohol and 0.4 million of drug-attributable deaths were among men.

What is a standard drink measure?

Encouraging earlier intervention, expanding treatment resources, and promoting evidence-based prevention strategies will be cornerstones of reducing alcohol-related harm for individuals, families, and communities at large. We see that the proportion of deaths attributed to alcohol consumption is lower in North Africa and the Middle East and much higher in Eastern Europe. With the change country feature, it is possible to view the same data for other countries.

Wine contains around 12% pure alcohol per volume, so that one liter of wine contains 0.12 liters of pure alcohol. Beer contains around 5% of pure alcohol per volume1 so that one liter of beer contains 0.05 liters of pure alcohol. As we see, following prohibition, levels of alcohol consumption returned to similar levels as in the pre-prohibition period. 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.

Interventions for alcohol use disorders range from brief counseling sessions to intensive inpatient programs. Understanding the common types of treatment can empower individuals to seek the level of care that suits their needs. Understanding how alcohol misuse breaks down by age group is important because interventions can then be more precisely targeted.

Louisiana Alcohol Abuse Statistics

A century ago, some countries had much higher levels of alcohol consumption. In France in the 1920s, the average was 22.1 liters of pure alcohol per person per year. This topic page looks at the data on global patterns of alcohol consumption, patterns of drinking, beverage types, the prevalence of alcoholism, and consequences, including crime, mortality, and road incidents. The death rates due to alcohol consumption per litre of alcohol consumed are highest in low-income countries and lowest in high-income countries.

Heavy drinking sessions

• It’s estimated that globally, around 1 percent of the population has an alcohol use disorder.
• Learn more about the financial impact of alcohol misuse in the United States.
• Wine contains around 12% pure alcohol per volume1 so that one liter of wine contains 0.12 liters of pure alcohol.
• Although mutual help and peer support groups are useful resources for people with substance use disorders, almost half of responding countries reported that they do not offer such support groups for substance use disorders.
• Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is the most prevalent substance use disorder in the U.S.
• In the chart, we see data across some countries on the share of people with an alcohol use disorder who received treatment.

While men are more likely to abuse alcohol, women who abuse alcohol have the added complication of potential pregnancy. Added to these costs is the toll on people’s health, quality of life, safety, and well-being. Alcohol-related deaths in North Dakota are among the most likely to be due to chronic causes.

Public Health

Sweden, for example, increased the share of wine consumption and, therefore, reduced the share of spirits. By default, the data for France is shown – in recent decades, here, the share of beer consumption increased to make up around a fifth of alcohol consumption in France. Heavy episodic drinking is defined as the proportion of adult drinkers who have had at least 60 grams or more of pure alcohol on at least one occasion in the past 30 days. An intake of 60 grams of pure alcohol is approximately equal to 6 standard alcoholic drinks.

The comparison of this map with the previous maps makes clear that heavy drinking is not necessarily most common in the same countries where alcohol consumption is most common. The map shows heavy drinkers – those who had an episode of heavy drinking in the previous 30 days – as a share of total drinkers (i.e., those who have drunk less than one alcoholic drink in the last 12 months are excluded). The District of Columbia’s alcohol-related death rate increases faster than any U.S. state’s, and the rate of binge drinkers is very high. Alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) kill over 3 million people each year, accounting for up to 6% of global deaths. Targeted prevention efforts can reduce the prevalence of alcohol misuse and delay or avert progression to full-blown alcohol dependence.

Alcohol consumption has a causal impact on more than 200 health conditions (diseases and injuries). We also find correlates in drinking patterns when we look at groupings of income, education or work status. Although those in lower income or educational status groups often drink less overall, they are more likely to have lower-frequency, higher-intensity drinking patterns. Overall, these groups drink less, but a higher percentage will drink heavily when they do. Both are measured in terms of pure alcohol/ethanol intake rather than the total quantity of the beverage.

Global data on the prevalence and effectiveness of alcohol use disorder treatment is incomplete. Globally, the age-standardized death rate has declined from approximately 40 deaths per 100,000 people in the early 1990s to 30 deaths per 100,000 in 2019. Alcohol consumption is a known risk factor for a number of health conditions, and potential mortality cases.

Rethinking Drinking

Binge drinking is the act of drinking large quantities of alcohol in one sitting. Some national organizations define binge drinking as having 4 or 5 alcoholic drinks within 2 hours. In the chart, we see data across some countries on the share of people with an alcohol use disorder who received treatment.

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in the United States: Age Groups and Demographic Characteristics

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a group of conditions that can occur in people whose mothers drank alcohol while pregnant. Men are more likely to drink alcohol, become addicted to alcohol, binge drink, drink more often, and die of alcohol-related causes than women. In the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and many European countries, alcohol is responsible for around a third of all traffic deaths. The total estimated number of deaths by country from 1990 to 2019 is found here. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) refers to the drinking of alcohol that causes mental and physical health problems.