How Many Drinkers?

New Report Highlights Alcohol Abstainers, Quitters as Well as Current Drinkers

A new US federal report may not show how many people are in recovery from alcoholism, but it does provide interesting insights into the number of adults who have quit drinking or abstain for health and other reasons.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics estimated in its Health Behaviors of Adults: United States, 2005-2007 report that

• 61.2 percent of American adults currently drink alcohol, but that
• 24.6 percent are lifetime abstainers and
• 14.3 percent of Americans call themselves former drinkers.

Of the latter,

• 8.1 percent said they are former infrequent drinkers, while
• 6.2 percent classified themselves as former regular drinkers.

Men (67.6 percent) were more likely than women (55.3 percent) to be current drinkers. More white adults were current drinkers (64.2 percent) than members of any other ethnic group; Asians were the least likely to drink (43.1 percent).

Most of the current alcohol users surveyed were considered to be

• light drinkers (29.3 percent), while
• 14.4 percent were classified as moderate drinkers,
• 12.3 percent were considered infrequent drinkers, and
• 5 percent were labelled heavy drinkers (having more than 7 drinks per week for women, or more than 14 drinks per week for men, on average, during the past year).

1. See also
2. 5 Alcoholism Myths
3. 5 Alcoholism Subtypes
4. Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul
5. Of Course You’re Angry, Second Edition
6. Am I an Alcoholic?

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This entry was posted on January 8, 2012 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Alcohol, Alcoholism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.