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.

  • scttgard@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    2 days ago

    I remember at the beginning of the pandemic and everything was shutting down, the Denver Mayor declared liquor stores non-essential. Within a couple of hours every liquor store in the city had a line around the block. Every news station in town was covering it like they couldn’t believe what was happening.

    The decision was reversed a few hours later.

    All those liquor stores aren’t stying open because of a few “heavy drinkers”. See how many stores are within 5 miles of your house.

    • Fit_Series_573@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      18 hours ago

      Where I lived, the liquor stores were run by the state and were shut down during early COVID for pickup only via online orders. Those two days leading up to it had some of the longest lines I’ve ever seen that weren’t for a sporting event.