Pavel Prikhodko, Ph.D. Machine Learning
The average American citizen drinks about 8.6 liters of spirits per year. In 2013, 70 percent of adults reported that they drank alcohol in the past year and 56 percent reported that they drank in the past month. About 87 percent of adults said that they drank alcohol during their lifetime. The bitter flip side of alcohol consumption is alcoholism.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 24 percent of adults confessed that they engaged in binge drinking in the last month, and 6 percent said that they engaged in heavy drinking in the past month.
About 62,000 men and 26,000 women die in the United States annually from alcoholism and related causes. In 2013, alcohol was a factor in over 30 percent of driving fatalities in America. About 10,076 people died in alcohol-impaired car accidents.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported in 2013 that 35 percent of 15-year-old persons drank spirits at least once in their lives. Over 8.5 million respondents aged from 12 to 20 reported drinking alcohol in the past month. Thus, 22.5 percent of young women and 23 percent of young men reported drinking in the past month. The rate of the similarly-aged heavy drinkers was 1.4 million (4.6 percent of males and 2.7 percent of females). In 2013, there were 5.4 million underage binge drinkers (15.8 percent of males and 12.4 percent of females).
According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, one in every 12 adults suffers from alcohol dependence or abuse. More than half of people aged 18 and older had problem drinking in their family history, and more than seven million children lived with parents who had abused alcohol.
If we look at the rates of alcohol consumption among American college students in 2013, we see that nearly 40 percent of students aged 18-22 were involved in binge drinking in the past month, compared to 33 percent of other persons of the same age. The number of students engaged in heavy drinking in the past month was 12.7 percent, compared to 9.3 percent of other persons at the same age.
Incidents stemming from heavy drinking and alcohol abuse can lead to horrific consequences. As a result, 696,000 students between the ages of 18-24 are assaulted by another drunken student each year. More than 95,000 American students are victims of sexual assault caused by alcohol annually.
There are a lot of articles and studies explaining the negative influences of alcohol on the human body. Though moderate alcohol consumption may have beneficial effects on health, it’s no secret that heavy drinking increases the risk of cancer and hepatic disorders. For example, the total number of deaths caused by liver diseases among individuals aged 12 and older was 71,713, and 46 percent of this number were alcohol-related in 2013. About 43 percent of female liver disease deaths were caused by alcohol.
About Pavel Prikhodko
Pavel Prikhodko, Ph.D. Machine Learning
Pavel has worked for many years as a researcher and developer on a wide range of applications (varying from mechanics and manufacturing to social data, finance and advertising), building predictive systems and trying to find stories that data can tell.
In his free time, he enjoys being with his family.
Other posts by Pavel Prikhodko:
Hello, I would like to know what data source you used for the numbers.