Alcohol Use in the United States: Age Groups and Demographic Characteristics | National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
www.niaaa.nih.gov
Prevalence of Lifetime DrinkingPeople Ages 12 and OlderAccording to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 228.4 million people ages 12 and older (79.2% in this age group) reported that they drank alcohol at some point in their lifetime.1,2 This includes:

NIAAA defines heavy alcohol use as follows:

For men, consuming five or more drinks on any day or 15 or more per week

For women, consuming four or more drinks on any day or eight or more per week

According to the 2024 NSDUH, 14.4 million adults ages 18 and older (5.5% in this age group) reported heavy alcohol use in the past month

Five drinks for me would be a good date night dinner at home (cocktail hour, plus two glasses of wine with dinner). Hardly a bacchanal, but apparently America is slacking as of late.

  • salacious_coaster@infosec.pubOPEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    I can’t believe there’s supposedly such a wide spectrum of drinking in the population below “heavy” as defined in the OP. Anything less than that seems like a waste of time and calories. They defined “binge drinking” as getting your BAC up to 0.08%, otherwise known as “starting to catch a buzz,” and supposedly like 70 million Americans drink, but not up to that level. Bullshit.