Teen Alcohol Statistics

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Although alcohol has been used in a variety of different ways throughout history that can be called "beneficial," it was, however, realized thousands of years ago that excessive drinking and abuse resulted in negative consequences such as personal and social problems.

Focusing on current teen alcohol statistics, it is claimed, is an informative way to analyze the social and the personal problems that are associated with drinking alcohol to an excess by our teenagers.

Why Teen Alcohol Statistics are Needed

Unfortunately, the full extent of the destructive and widespread consequences of teenage alcohol abuse and teen alcoholism are not usually understood until relevant statistics are explicitly articulated.  As a result, the following teen alcohol statistics, obtained via different research studies and surveys on the Internet, will be presented below:

• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Among eighth graders, higher truancy rates were associated with greater rates of alcohol use in the past month.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• In a survey of seventh- through twelfth-grade teachers, 76 percent felt that underage student drinking was a serious or somewhat serious problem.
  
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Parents' drinking behaviors and attitudes of acceptance about drinking have been associated with adolescents' initiating and continuing drinking.
  
  
• 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).
  
  According to a 1995 Weekly Reader survey, more than half (54%) of fourth through sixth graders reported learning about the dangers of illicit drugs at school, but fewer than a third (30%) learned about the dangers of drinking and smoking at school.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Sixty-seven percent of eighth graders and 83 percent of tenth graders believe that alcohol is readily available to them for consumption.
  
  
• 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.
  
• 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.  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.
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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 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.
  
  
• Alcohol-related accidents are the leading cause of deaths among young people.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Traffic crashes are the greatest single cause of death for persons aged 6–33. About 45% of these fatalities are in alcohol-related crashes.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• In 2005, almost 36% of 8th-graders and 58% of 10th-graders reported using flavored alcoholic beverages at least once.
  
  
• Alcohol-related problems are disproportionately found among both juvenile and adult criminal offenders.

Teen Alcohol Statistics:  Conclusion

Ironically, despite the fact that "alcohol information" such as the negative consequences of heavy drinking and alcohol abuse has been known for centuries, alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence continue to devastate and shortchange the lives of many teenagers in our "enlightened" and "aware" society.

Indeed, to validate this contention, one merely has to observe some of the deplorable teen alcohol statistics articulated above.

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