Alcohol Statistics

• Underage drinking costs Americans nearly $53 billion annually. If this cost were shared equally by each congressional district, the amount would total more than $120 million per district.
- Costs of Underage Drinking, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 1999.

• Alcohol is a factor in the four leading causes of death among persons ages 10 to 24: (1) motor-vehicle crashes, (2) unintentional injuries, (3) homicide, and (4) suicide.
- Kann, L., et al. (2000). Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance - United States, 1999. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 49(SS05): 1-96.

• A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report shows one-fourth of all traffic deaths among children (under age 15) involved alcohol. Children were most often in a car driven by a drunk driver and unrestrained.
- Alcohol-related Traffic Fatalities Involving Children — United States, 1985-1996," MMWR, December 5, 1997; http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/mmwr.html

• Approximately 9.7 million current drinkers in the United States are between the ages of 12-20. Of these young drinkers, 18.7% in binge drinking and 6% are heavy drinkers.
- Summary of Findings from the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, September 2001.

• 56% of students in grades 5 through 12 say that alcohol advertising encourages them to drink.
- "Underage Drinking Information Parents Need to Know," MADD; http://www.madd.org/UNDER21/youth_issues.shtml
 
• On average, young people begin drinking at 13.1 years of age.
- National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Main Findings 1998, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, March 2000.

• Girls are beginning to drink at younger ages. In the 1960s, 7% of 10- to 14-year-old females used alcohol; by the early 1990’s, that figure had risen to 31%.
- National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, Substance Abuse Among Women in the U.S. United States Department of Health and Human Services, 1996.Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University, 1999.
 
• By the time they are high school seniors, 80% have used alcohol and 62% have been drunk.
- Monitoring the Future Study National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2000 , University of Michigan, August 2001.

• Young people who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who begin drinking at age 21
- Grant, B.F., & Dawson, D. A. (1997). Age at Onset of Alcohol Use and its Association with DSM-IV Alcohol Abuse and Dependence: Results from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey. Journal of Substance Abuse, vol. 9, p. 103-110.

• More than 67% of young people who start drinking before the age of 15 will try an illicit drug. Children who drink are 7.5 times more likely to use any illicit drug, more than 22 times more likely to use marijuana, and 50 times more likely to use cocaine than children who never drank.
- Cigarettes, Alcohol, Marijuana: Gateways to Illicit Drug Use, Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University, 1994.
 
• Teens under 15 who have ever consumed alcohol are twice as likely to have sex as those who have not. Nearly 4 in 10 (39%) sexually active teens who use alcohol have had sexual intercourse with four or more individuals.
- Dangerous Liaisons: Substance Abuse and Sex, Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University, 1999.