What Percentage of Americans Drink Alcohol?

This was a 3.6% decrease in the growth rate over the previous 12-month period. The cost of excessive alcohol use in the U.S. was almost a quarter trillion dollars in 2010. Implementing effective community-based interventions can reduce excessive drinking and its costs.

What is a standard drink measure?

Alcohol consumption is a known risk factor for a number of health conditions, and potential mortality cases. Alcohol consumption has a causal impact on more than 200 health conditions (diseases and injuries). 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. Other common answers include that they do not like drinking (16%); it is unhealthy (14%); they are afraid of the consequences (13%); and they had a bad past experience with alcohol (13%). The most important key figures provide you with a compact summary of the topic of «Alcoholic beverages industry in the United States» and take you straight to the corresponding statistics.

How Much Do Drinkers Consume?

Younger baby boomers — ages — rank among the top three age groups for highest levels of average daily costs for alcohol, pets and entertainment spending, which are considered non-essential expenses. A separate GOBankingRates study found that baby boomers can avoid ruining their retirement by cutting unnecessary spending on alcohol, eating out, rideshares, coffee, clothing, and events — in half. For example, this age group could invest $2,098 per year and have $35,143 in savings alcohol withdrawal by age 65 if they earn a 7 percent annual return. But when I say I have a couple of drinks probably three nights a week, some people might think that to be quite a lot, while others would just shrug, considering that to be pretty normal. I also have to take into account that my drinking habits fluctuate depending on other things going on in my life. For instance, I started dating my boyfriend almost a year ago, and much of the time we spent together was over drinks.

Global beer consumption

Between 1996 and 2016, the average amount Americans spent on alcohol annually rose by $175. But how much of increased spending is attributable to rising alcohol prices, and how much results from Americans simply drinking more? To find out, we juxtaposed the typical American’s alcohol expenses with the average price of wine and malt beverages in each year. It turns out that beer prices surged over 61 percent during that time, and wine prices increased by over 150 percent since 1996. What some suggest should be the fourth category of alcoholic beverages, sales of ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages increased from «7 percent in 2019 to 11 percent for the first half of 2021,» with several sources indicating that the RTD market will continue to grow. In fact, the market share for hard seltzer decreased slightly between 2020 and 2021 due to «increased competition from crossover categories like RTDs.»

If you or someone you love is struggling with a drinking problem or the use of other substances, the personal price you pay can be severe. Our team of treatment experts and advisors can help you evaluate your options so that you can choose ethical and effective care. To meet our team of clinicians or learn more about our resources and programs, explore our website today. According to our data, recent decades have seen a definite surge in spending on alcohol, particularly in some places and populations. As a practitioner, one way to assess your clients’ drinking habits is to have them compare their current consumption level to how much the rest of the nation is drinking.

This shows the expenditure on alcohol in the United States, differentiated by where the alcohol has been purchased and consumed. Data on alcohol expenditure is typically limited to North America, Europe, and Oceania. This pattern of drinking is often termed ‘binging,’ where individuals consume large amounts of alcohol within a single session versus small quantities more frequently. Get a brief on the top business stories of the week, plus CEO interviews, market updates, tech and money news that matters to you. “I think people sort of forgot all the problems [with alcohol],” William Kerr, senior scientist at the California-based Public Health Institute’s Alcohol Research Group, said. From another report, compared to the first half of 2021, the volume of premium-and-above Prosecco grew 8% in the first half of 2022.

Since then, drinking in the U.S. has fluctuated, with a high in the 1970s and 1980s, when the average American drank 2.75 gallons per year. However, the number of alcohol-related deaths among women has increased by 85 percent from 1999 to 2017. Between 2022 and 2026, the no-alcohol category is expected to increase in volume by 25%, while the low-alcohol category will increase by 6%. To master how to identify meth your budget, start keeping tracking of your daily, weekly and monthly spending. Or, use a budgeting app like Mint or Digit that can automatically track your spending for you and help you save up for your important financial goals. Gallup measures Americans’ alcohol consumption each July as part of its Consumption Habits poll — one of 12 surveys that make up the Gallup Poll Social Series.

NielsenIQ reports that the «claim to watch» for beer/flavored malt beverages/cider is «carb-free,» for wine it is «calorie conscious,» and «no added sugar» for spirits. More specifically, when asked how many alcoholic drinks of any kind they had in the past seven days, a third of drinkers (34%) in 2022 said they had had none. About half (53%) said they had between one and seven drinks, while 12% reported consuming eight or more drinks, thus averaging more than one per day. In contrast to the wide variations seen by income and religiosity, alcohol consumption varies only slightly by gender, with 66% of men versus 61% of women saying they ever have occasion to drink.

The percentage tells you the number of women or men out of 100 people drink as much or less than your client. The map shows the share of all road traffic deaths attributed to alcohol consumption over the national legal limit for alcohol consumption. Measuring the health impact by mortality alone fails to capture the impact that alcohol use disorders have on an individual’s well-being.

NielsenIQ revealed that «less than 5% of households [s]» purchased low and no-alcohol (LNA) beverages, which accounted for 3.5% of the total alcohol market share. Online sales of LNA beverages increased by 315% between October 2020 and 2021, while «alcoholic options» only increased by 26%. The average daily expenditures for health insurance and cash contributions are higher for older baby boomers — or those age 65 or older — than any other age group. However, gas, education, clothing and cellphone service spending for older baby boomers are the lowest among all age groups.

  1. Per-capita alcohol consumption appears to be highest in the West and lowest in the South, based on the NIAAA data.
  2. From another report, compared to the first half of 2021, the volume of premium-and-above Prosecco grew 8% in the first half of 2022.
  3. Drinking is more common among younger than older adults, but this is evident only when the analysis is limited to those of legal drinking age.
  4. In fact, the market share for hard seltzer decreased slightly between 2020 and 2021 due to «increased competition from crossover categories like RTDs.»

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Most adults who consume alcohol have done so recently, according to the July Gallup survey. Among adults who drink, 69% say they last had a drink within the past week. This includes 32% whose most recent drink was in the last 24 hours, and 37% who most recently had one within the last two to seven days. Of course, I can’t be representative of every single person in my age bracket. So, I took to asking some peers — all of whom are in their 20s and 30s, and all of whose names I’ve changed — about theiraverage weekly spend on alcohol. Keep in mind almost all of these people live in urban areas, so it’s still not a completely accurate snapshot (though really, what is?), but I think their answers provide some interesting insight into how we approach this particular area of spending.

Further discussion on these risk factors can be found on our topic page on drug use. In the chart, we see data across some countries on the share of people with an alcohol use disorder who received treatment. This data is based on estimates of prevalence and treatment published by the World Health Organization (WHO).