Teen Alcohol Abuse Statistics

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According to statistics on alcoholism and alcohol abuse statistics, even though alcohol has been used in a number of diverse ways throughout history that can be called "useful," it was, however, known thousands of years ago that abusive and excessive drinking led to negative outcomes and adverse alcohol side effects such as societal and personal problems.

Concentrating on current teen alcohol abuse statistics, it is asserted, is an informative way to evaluate the personal and the social problems that are related to drinking alcohol to an excess by our teens. 

And after reviewing some of the facts and statistics that follow, it will become apparent that teenage alcoholism and adolescent alcohol abuse are critical problems that need to be addressed by our politicians, teachers, parents, and community leaders.

Why Teen Alcohol Abuse Statistics are Needed

Unfortunately, the scope of the damaging and pervasive effects of teen alcohol abuse and teenage alcoholism is not fully realized until relevant teen alcohol statistics are explicitly stated.

Consequently, the following teen alcohol abuse statistics and statistics on alcoholism, obtained via various research studies and surveys on the Internet, will be listed below:

• Alcohol-related problems and alcohol side effects are disproportionately found among both juvenile and adult criminal offenders.
  
  
• Traffic crashes are the greatest single cause of death for persons aged 6-33. About 45% of these fatalities are in alcohol-related crashes.
  
  
• In 2005, almost 36% of 8th-graders and 58% of 10th-graders reported using flavored alcoholic beverages at least once.
  
  
• Alcohol-related accidents are the leading cause of deaths among young people.
  
  
• Rates of drinking differ among racial and ethnic minority groups. Among students in grades 9 to 12, binge drinking was reported by 34 percent non-Hispanic white students, 11 percent of African American students, and 30 percent of Hispanic students.
  
  
• According to a 1995 national survey of fourth through sixth graders who read the Weekly Reader, 30 percent of students reported that they received "a lot" of pressure from their classmates to drink beer.
  
  
• One national study found that students are less likely to use alcohol if they are socially accepted by people at school and feel that teachers treat students fairly.

• Underage drinking costs the United States more than $58 billion every year - enough to buy every public school student a state-of-the-art computer.
  
  
• Adolescents drink less and have fewer alcohol-related problems when their parents discipline them consistently and set clear expectations.
  
  
• According to one study, almost 11% of 8th-graders, 22% of 10th-graders, and 27% of 12th-graders report binge drinking (five drinks in a row in the last two weeks).
  
  
• In one survey, 50% of high school seniors reported that they drank alcohol in the past 30 days, with 32% of them reporting that they were drunk at least once.
  
  
• 65% of youth surveyed said that they got the alcohol they drink from family and friends.  Apparently these friends and family members do not realize that they are contributing to adolescent alcohol abuse and teenage alcoholism.
  
  
• Each year in the United States, roughly 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking.  This includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle accidents.
  
  
•  Research has shown that U.S. teens who drink alcohol are 50 times more likely to use cocaine than teens who never consume alcohol.
  
  
• Research indicates that adolescents who use alcohol may remember 10 percent less of what they have learned than those who don’t drink.
  
  
• More than 1,700 college students in the U.S. are killed each year-about 4.65 a day-as a result of alcohol-related injuries.
  
  
• According to one study, forty-one percent of ninth-grade students reported drinking in the past month, while only 24 percent reported smoking in the past month. In another study it was discovered that one-fifth of eighth graders and 42 percent of tenth graders have been drunk at least once.
  
  
• In 2002, U.S. alcoholism statistics reported that 2.6 million binge drinkers were between the ages of 12 and 17.  Since binge drinking can result is alcohol poisoning, this is one aspect of adolescent alcohol abuse that can be fatal.

• Sixty-seven percent of eighth graders and 83 percent of tenth graders believe that alcohol is readily available to them for consumption.
  
  
• In 2005, 2.1 million American college students between the ages of 18 and 24 reported driving under the influence of alcohol.

• In the U.S., problem drinkers are mostly found in young adults between the ages of 18 and 29.
  
  
• According to one survey, almost 20% of 8th-graders, and 41% of 10th-graders have been drunk at least once.
  
  
• An overwhelming number of Americans (96%) are concerned about underage drinking; and a majority support measures that would help reduce teen drinking, such as stricter controls on alcohol sales, advertising, and promotion.
  
  
• According to one study, approximately 17% of 8th-graders, 34% of 10th-graders, and 45% of 12th-graders report having consumed alcohol during the past month.
  
  
• The average 18-year-old has seen 100,000 television commercials encouraging him or her to drink. This fact displays some of the societal influences in adolescent alcohol abuse and teenage alcohol addiction.

• In a survey of seventh-through twelfth-grade teachers, 76 percent felt that underage student drinking was a serious or somewhat serious problem.
  
  
• Current research suggests that children are less likely to drink when their parents spend time and interact in a positive way with them and when they and their parents report feeling close to each other.
  
  
• Parents' drinking behaviors and attitudes of acceptance about drinking have been associated with adolescents' initiating and continuing drinking.
  
  
• 3.1 million Americans -- approximately 1.4% of the population 12 and older -- received addiction treatment for alcoholism and alcohol-related problems in 1997; treatment peaked among people 26-34.
  
  
• Among eighth graders, higher truancy rates were associated with greater rates of alcohol use in the past month.
  
  
• Forty percent of ninth-grade students reported having consumed alcohol before they were age 13. In contrast, only 26.2 percent of ninth graders reported having smoked cigarettes, and 11.6 percent reported having used marijuana before they were age 13.
  
  
• One study of Midwestern States found that 46 percent of ninth graders who reported drinking alcohol in the previous month said they obtained the alcohol from a person aged 21 or older. Obviously, these older friends or acquaintances are not aware that they were enabling the negative drinking behavior of these adolescents and contributing to their alcohol abuse.
  
  
• A study of fifth and sixth-grade students found that those who demonstrated an awareness of beer ads also held more favorable beliefs about drinking and intended to drink more frequently when they grew up.
  
  
• 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.

Teen Alcohol Abuse Statistics:  Conclusion

A Focus on Alcohol Statistics. It is with a certain sense of irony to note that in spite of the fact that "alcohol information" such as the negative alcohol side effects of abusive and excessive drinking have been identified and discussed for centuries, adolescent alcohol abuse and teenage alcohol addiction continue to destroy and truncate the lives of many youth in our "enlightened" and "aware" society.

Indeed, to corroborate this assertion, one simply has to reflect on some of the appalling adolescent alcohol abuse statistics and facts and statistics on teenage alcoholism discussed above.

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