In the United States a standard drink contains about twelve grams (about 0.5 fluid ounces) of pure alcohol. The following beverages contain nearly equal amounts of alcohol and are approximately standard drink equivalents:
ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN THE UNITED STATES
After caffeine, alcohol is the most commonly used drug in the United States. Although researchers frequently count how many people are drinking and how often, the statistics do not necessarily reflect the true picture of alcohol consumption in the United States. People tend to under report their drinking. Furthermore, survey interviewees are typically people living in households; therefore, the results of survey research may not include the homeless, a portion of the U.S. population traditionally at risk for alcoholism (alcohol dependence).
Per Capital Consumption of Alcohol
According to Table 2.1, the yearly per capital consumption of alcoholic beverages peaked at 28.8 gallons in 1981. (The per capital consumption includes the total resident population and all age groups.) Per capital consumption declined to 24.7 gallons in 1995 and has climbed only slightly since then. In 2004 the per capital consumption of alcoholic beverages was 25.2 gallons.
Beer remained the most popular alcoholic beverage in 2004, being consumed at a rate of 21.6 gallons per person. Nonetheless, this level of consumption (also seen in 2003 and 1997) is the lowest level since 1976, when 21.5 gallons were consumed. Beer consumption peaked in 1981 at 24.6 gallons per person, but its consumption declined steadily to its present relatively stable level by 1995. The per capital consumption of wine and spirits in the United States is much lower than that of beer; the 2004 per capital consumption of wine was 2.3 gallons, while per capital consumption of distilled spirits (liquor) was 1.4 gallons.
A complex set of factors contributes to variations in alcohol use over people's life spans. Part of the decline in alcohol consumption is a result of population trends. In the 1980s and 1990s the number of people in their early twenties—the leading consumers of alcohol—declined fairly steadily. The United States is also seeing a growing number of residents in their fifties and sixties. This is a group that is, in general, unlikely to consume as much alcohol as younger people.
Individual Consumption of Alcohol
The data for alcohol consumption noted in the previous section are per capital figures, which are determined by taking the total consumption of alcohol per year and dividing by the total resident population, including children. This figure is useful to see how consumption changes from year to year because it takes into account changes in the size of the resident population. Nonetheless, babies and small children generally do not consume alcohol, so it is also useful to look at consumption figures based on U.S. residents aged twelve and over.
| TABLE 2.1 |
| Per capital consumption of beer, wine, and distilled spirits, 1966–2004 |
| Year | Total resident population |
| Beer | Wine | Distilled spirits | Total |
| Gallons |
| Notes: Alcoholic beverage per capital figures are calculated by Economic Research Service using industry data. Uses U.S. resident population, July. |
| Beginning in 1983, includes wine coolers. |
| Computed from unrounded. |
| Source: "Alcoholic Beverages: Per Capital Consumption," U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, December 21, 2005, |
| 1966 | 16.5 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 19.0 |
| 1967 | 16.8 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 19.4 |
| 1968 | 17.3 | 1.1 | 1.7 | 20.1 |
| 1969 | 17.8 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 20.8 |
| 1970 | 18.5 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 21.6 |
| 1971 | 18.9 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 22.3 |
| 1972 | 19.3 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 22.8 |
| 1973 | 20.1 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 23.6 |
| 1974 | 20.9 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 24.5 |
| 1975 | 21.3 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 25.0 |
| 1976 | 21.5 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 25.2 |
| 1977 | 22.4 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 26.1 |
| 1978 | 23.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 26.9 |
| 1979 | 23.8 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 27.8 |
| 1980 | 24.3 | 2.1 | 2.0 | 28.3 |
| 1981 | 24.6 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 28.8 |
| 1982 | 24.4 | 2.2 | 1.9 | 28.5 |
| 1983 | 24.2 | 2.3 | 1.8 | 28.3 |
| 1984 | 24.0 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 28.1 |
| 1985 | 23.8 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 28.0 |
| 1986 | 24.1 | 2.4 | 1.6 | 28.2 |
| 1987 | 24.0 | 2.4 | 1.6 | 28.0 |
| 1988 | 23.8 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 27.6 |
| 1989 | 23.6 | 2.1 | 1.5 | 27.2 |
| 1990 | 23.9 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 27.5 |
| 1991 | 23.1 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 26.3 |
| 1992 | 22.7 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 25.9 |
| 1993 | 22.4 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 25.5 |
| 1994 | 22.3 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 25.3 |
| 1995 | 21.8 | 1.7 | 1.2 | 24.7 |
| 1996 | 21.7 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 24.8 |
| 1997 | 21.6 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 24.7 |
| 1998 | 21.7 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 24.8 |
| 1999 | 21.8 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 25.0 |
| 2000 | 21.7 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 24.9 |
| 2001 | 21.8 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 25.0 |
| 2002 | 21.8 | 2.1 | 1.3 | 25.2 |
| 2003 | 21.6 | 2.2 | 1.3 | 25.1 |
| 2004 | 21.6 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 25.2 |
Table 2.2 shows the percentage of respondents aged twelve and over who reported consuming alcohol in the past month in 2004 and 2005 when questioned for the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which is conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In 2005, 51.8% of this total population had consumed alcohol in the month prior to the survey, as opposed to 50.3% of the total population in 2004. A higher percentage of males consumed alcoholic beverages in the past month than did females in both years. Table 2.2 also shows that alcohol consumption varies by race. A higher percentage of whites had used alcohol within the month prior to the survey than had African-Americans or Hispanics.
Prevalence of Problem Drinking
Table 2.2 also shows the percentages of Americans aged twelve and older who engaged in binge drinking or heavy alcohol use in the month prior to the survey. Binge drinking means that a person had five or more drinks on the same occasion, that is, within a few hours of each other. Heavy alcohol use means that a person had five or more drinks on the same occasion on each of five or more days in the past thirty days. All heavy alcohol users are binge drinkers, but not all binge drinkers are heavy alcohol users.
People aged eighteen to twenty-five were more likely than people in other age groups to have binged on alcohol and been heavy alcohol users in both 2004 and 2005. Much higher percentages of males binge drank and used alcohol heavily than females in the month prior to each of these surveys. In addition, American Indians and Alaskan Natives were the most likely to have engaged in binge and heavy alcohol use.
