Statistics

Prevalence of Binge Drinking

• Binge drinking often begins around age 13, its prevalence decreases during adolescence, and peaks during the age range of 18-22. (2)
• A national survey reveals that 42% of college students reported binge drinking. (5)

• On college campuses where 70% or more of the student body binge drinks, 87% of all students have experienced one or more problems such as physical assault, sexual harassment, and impaired sleep and study time as a result of their peers’ drinking. (5)
• Half of students who binge drink do so more than once a week. (5)
• Half of all frequent binge drinkers report having five or more different alcohol-related problems during the school year – 20 times the rate of such problems as students who drink but do not binge. (5)
• Only one in five of all college students is a frequent (or weekly) binge drinker, but two-thirds of the alcohol consumed by college students is consumed by this group. (5)
• Over 60% of all injuries, vandalism, and problems with the police reported on college campuses are in frequent (weekly) binge drinkers. (5)

• 58% of students surveyed don’t think alcohol is important at a party. (5)

• 24.5% of those who start drinking at age 17 or younger develop alcohol dependence. (2)

• 10% of those who start drinking at age 21 or older develop alcohol dependence. (2)

Contributing Factors

• Group size: studies show that the average person drinks far more in a group than when alone. (2)
• Container size: young people tend to drink more if they order pitchers than if they order by the bottle or by the glass. (2)
• Who is serving: most drinkers tend to drink more if they serve themselves than if a bartender is serving (whether or not they have to pay for drinks.) (2)
• Price: Students who pay less than a dollar per drink or who pay a flat "all-you-can-drink" rate are more likely to binge than those who pay more. (5)
• Perception of others’ drinking: Students tend to overestimate other students’ use of alcohol and other drugs. Students estimated that 2% of other students abstained from alcohol and other drugs, while in fact 16% abstained. (6)

Underage Drinkers

• 88% of high school seniors have tried alcohol at least once. (3)
• 28% of high school seniors admit to binge drinking at least once in the two weeks before they were surveyed. (3)
• By the time they graduate from high school, two-thirds of youth are regular drinkers, and two-fifths are frequent binge drinkers. (2)
• Binge drinking during high school, especially among males, is a strong predictor of binge drinking during college (among those who make it to college.) (2)
• Eight young people a day die in alcohol-related crashes. (1)

• Alcohol kills more teenagers than all other drugs combined. It is a factor in the three leading causes of death among 15-24 year olds: accidents, homicides, and suicides. (2)

• Over 33% of all deaths for people aged 15-20 result from motor vehicle crashes. In 1996, almost two out of five of these motor vehicle fatalities involved alcohol. (4) 

• Youth who drink are 7.5 times more likely to use other illicit drugs and 50 times more likely to use cocaine than young people who never drink. (1)

Health

• Over 30,000 students each year need emergency health care for alcohol overdose.
• One in eight college students reports injuries resulting from alcohol use. (5)
• One in twenty college students reports alcohol-related injuries severe enough to require medical treatment. (5)
• Alcoholism affects more people than diabetes, lung cancer, breast cancer, or heart attacks, and is about as common as hypertension (high blood pressure.) (1)
• Last year, there were 196,277 emergency room visits as a result of using alcohol with other drugs. (4)
• 60% of college women who have acquired sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, were under the influence of alcohol at the time they had intercourse. (6)

Academic Damage

• Half of all binge drinkers miss at least one class per quarter or semester due to drinking. (5)
• More than one-third of binge drinkers report falling behind in their schoolwork due to drinking. (5)
• Alcohol is a factor in 40% of all academic problems. (5)
• Alcohol is a factor in 28% of college dropouts. (5)

• Students with GPAs of D or F drink three times as much as those who earn A's. (1)

Economic Costs

• Each year, college students spend $5.5 billion on alcohol (mostly beer.) This is more than they spend on books, soda, coffee, juice, and milk combined. (7)
• On a typical campus, the average amount a student spends on alcohol is $466 per year. (7)
• The economic cost of alcohol abuse is about $148 billion per year, including medical costs, lost productivity, crime, and losses resulting from premature death. (1)

Prevalence of Alcoholism

• Approximately 15% of all drinkers, or 1 in 7, will develop an alcohol abuse or dependence ("alcoholism") problem. (2)

• More than 40 percent of those who start drinking at age 15 or younger develop alcohol dependence. (2)
• 24.5% of those who start drinking at age 17 or younger develop alcohol dependence. (2)

• 10% of those who start drinking at age 21 or older develop alcohol dependence. (2)

Crime

• Alcohol is a factor in nearly 40 percent of violent crimes. (6)
• Among college men who raped women, 67% used alcohol or other drugs before the assault, and 55% of the victims also used alcohol or other drugs before the assault. (2)

Sources:
1 -- National Institute on Drug Abuse
2 -- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
3 -- Monitoring the Future
4 – Drug Abuse Warning Network
5 – Harvard School of Public Health
6 – Join Together Online
7 – Office for Substance Abuse Prevention