Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Statistics

In reality the only alcohol addiction or drug abuse statistics that matter is whether or not someone you care about has a problem with drugs or alcohol. If they do, then all the statistics in the world won’t take away the pain that you are dealing with.

However, if you are like I was, it helps to know that you are not alone. So here is a sampling of alcoholism and drug abuse numbers that will give you a feel for just how much company you have.

Consider the following information with caution as measures of alcoholism and drug addiction are not precise. At what point does a heavy drinker become an alcoholic? At what point is a regular drug user considered an addict? If a person has evidenced all the symptoms of alcoholism and then moderates or eliminates their drinking behavior, are they still considered alcoholic?

So, given this caution, here are some fairly typical estimates on alcoholism and drug abuse. Note: There are sources that quote both higher and lower estimates for all of these measures – I tried to select fairly typical numbers for each measure.

Number of Alcoholics

• USA - 14,000,000
• Worldwide - 140,000,000

Alcohol Related Deaths per Year

• USA – 100,000
• Worldwide – 1,800,000

Number of Illicit Drug Users (Non-alcohol)

• USA – 35,000,000
• Worldwide – 185,000,000

Illicit Drug Related Deaths per Year

• USA – 17,000
• Worldwide – 200,000

Tobacco Users

• USA – 80,000,000
• Worldwide – 1,300,000,000

Tobacco Related Deaths per Year

• USA – 435,000
• Worldwide – 4,900,000

In general, men are twice as likely as women to be alcoholics or drug abusers.

For every teen or young adult that dies from non-alcohol drug abuse, approximately five will die of alcohol related causes. I have to admit that this statistic surprised me!

The really surprising thing about these numbers is that they indicate that an alcoholic is over ten times as likely to die of alcohol related causes and that a smoker is nearly four times as likely to die of tobacco related causes than an illicit drug user is to die of drug related causes. Makes you wonder why so much money is being spent on the “War on drugs”. Maybe it would be better spent on a “War on alcoholism” or a “War on smoking”?

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