Alcohol consumption among the US public is at a relatively similar rate in the 21st century as it was in the nineteenth. The first drop in consumption appeared in the 1860s and 1870s, due to the American Civil War and the period of economic recovery that followed. After this, consumption rose again until the First World War, before it fell from 9.7 liters per person per year in 1915 to 7.4 in 1919. Following the war, the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution came into effect, which prohibited the importation, manufacturing and sale (but not consumption) of alcohol. From this point until Prohibition's end, there are no reliable figures regarding alcohol consumption in the US, however some sources suggest that consumption fell to thirty percent of its pre-prohibition levels in the first few years, but then grew to sixty or seventy percent by prohibition's end.

High spirits in the 70s and 80s

Total consumption then grew again in the 1930s and 40s, reaching 8.7 liters per person in 1946, before it plateaued at around 7.6 liters per person per year in the 1950s. Alcohol consumption then increased gradually to more than ten liters per person per year in the 1970s and 1980s, which was the highest rate of alcohol consumption in recorded US history. It then dropped to just over eight liters in the late 1990s, and gradually increased again to 8.9 liters per person in 2013, which is similar to figures recorded more than 160 years previously.

Beer moves a-head

The late 1800s also saw a major shift in the type of alcohol consumed. In 1850, 7.1 out of the eight liters consumed was through spirits, while beer and wine made up 0.5 and 0.3 liters respectively. However, by the turn of the twentieth century, alcohol was most commonly consumed through beer, and excluding a brief increase in spirits consumption in the 1960s, beer has been the most common source of alcohol since 1900. Alcohol from wine consumption has also gradually increased throughout US history, reaching its highest point in 2013, where the average US citizen consumed 1.6 liters of alcohol per year by drinking wine.

Per capita alcohol consumption in the United States has increased in the past couple of decades to reach 2.51 gallons of ethanol per capita in 2021. Beer has accounted for the largest share of the alcohol market in the United States over most of the last decade, but was overtaken by spirits for the first time in 2022. Health risks Constant and excessive alcohol use has been shown to cause many health complications and increase the risk of many diseases. For example, alcohol consumption increases the risk of various types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and liver disease. The cost of such health complications from alcohol is substantial. As of 2020, it was estimated that the health care costs alone from the abuse of alcohol in the United States were around 27 billion dollars a year. Liver cirrhosis A common health complication from the abuse of alcohol is liver cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is scarring of the liver from repeated injury. It can cause other health complications such as high blood pressure, bleeding, and infection, and can result in early death if left untreated. In 2019, there were over 24,000 alcohol-related liver cirrhosis deaths in the United States, almost double the number reported 15 years earlier.

Almost **% of the U.S. respondents aged 21 and older consume whiskey several times per week. Another ***** percent consume it every day and when it comes to occasional consumers, people who drink whiskey once per month, they make up *% of the total respondents.

Whiskey sales in the U.S.

Whiskey is one of the most popular beverages in the United States. Close to 70 million 9-liter cases of whiskey were sold in the U.S. in 2019. Within United States spirits industry, only vodka has higher sales volumes.

Whiskey consumption worldwide

When it comes to worldwide whiskey consumption per capita, France tops the ranking. On average, respondents in this country consumed **** liters of whiskey per capita in 2014 which is **** liters higher than second ranking Uruguay. United States claim third place with an average per capita consumption of **** liters of whiskey during the same period.

In 2023, it was estimated that nearly 61 percent of those aged 26 to 29 years in the United States were current alcohol drinkers, the highest rate of all age groups. Those aged 26 to 29 also had the highest rates of binge alcohol use. Although the legal age to consume alcohol in the United States is 21, around 31.1 percent of those aged 18 to 20 years were already current alcohol users. Binge drinking in the United States Binge drinking is commonly defined as consuming five or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion for men and four or more drinks for women. Binge drinking is most common among adults in their 20s, and more common among Hispanics and Whites than other races or ethnicities. The states with the highest prevalence of binge drinking are North Dakota, Montana, and Iowa, while Alabama has the lowest prevalence of binge drinking of all U.S. states. In 2022, almost 22 percent of the population of North Dakota binge drank in the past 30 days, with the overall prevalence rate in the United States around 17 percent at that time. High school alcohol use Although alcohol use among teens remains a problem, the annual prevalence of alcohol use among those in grades 8, 10, and 12 has decreased dramatically over the past two decades. In 2023, it was estimated that a combined total of 30 percent of those in grades 8, 10, and 12 had used alcohol in the past year. In comparison, the annual prevalence rate of alcohol use among these grades was just over 67 percent in the year 1991. The 30-day prevalence of alcohol use for these grades has also decreased significantly. In 1991, around 40 percent of those in grades 8, 10, and 12 used alcohol in the past month, while in 2023 this rate dropped to just 14.3 percent.

New Hampshire is currently the state with the highest per capita alcohol consumption in the United States. Per capita alcohol consumption has increased since the mid-1990s, with beer as the most commonly consumed alcoholic beverage. The beer market in the U.S. was estimated to amount to over *** billion dollars by 2029. Binge drinking Although New Hampshire consumes the highest amount of alcohol per capita, it reports lower rates of binge drinking than other states. The states with the highest binge drinking rates include North Dakota, Iowa, and South Dakota. Binge drinking is typically defined as the consumption of 5 or more drinks within 2 hours for men and 4 or more drinks within 2 hours for women. Binge drinking is the most common form of excessive alcohol use and is associated with serious risks. Binge drinking risks Health risks associated with binge drinking include cancer, chronic diseases such as liver disease and heart disease, alcohol dependence, and unintentional injury such as from car crashes. Although the dangers of drinking and driving are clear, it remains a problem across the United States. In 2023, around 7** percent of those aged 21 to 25 reported driving a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol in the preceding year.

Across generational cohorts, there is a large amount of variance in terms the frequency of alcohol consumption. In 2019, around *** percent of Millennials in the United States between the ages of 18 to 27 years consumed alcohol on a daily basis, while **** percent of U.S. members of the Silent Generation drank alcohol every day.

Before the outbreak of the pandemic, alcohol sales in the United States had been rising for years. 2020 was a sharp reversal of this trend. In 2022, sales of alcoholic beverages finally reached and surpassed pre-pandemic levels at 259.8 billion U.S. dollars.

Where is the growth coming from?

If we look at the different segments within the alcoholic beverage industry, we see that beer has been losing market share to spirits and to a lesser extent wine. Since 2010, spirits have gathered an additional nine percent of the alcohol market while beer has lost nearly the same amount over that time. The rise in total alcohol sales might then be explained by this shift towards spirits, where in 2022 “all categories saw positive growth.

The global total consumer spending on alcohol and tobacco in was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total ***** billion U.S. dollars (+***** percent). After the seventh consecutive increasing year, the alcohol- and tobacco-related spending is estimated to reach *** trillion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2029. Consumer spending, in this case alcohol- and tobacco-related spending, refers to the domestic demand of private households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs) in the selected region. Spending by corporations or the state is not included. Consumer spending is the biggest component of the gross domestic product as computed on an expenditure basis in the context of national accounts. The other components in this approach are consumption expenditure of the state, gross domestic investment as well as the net exports of goods and services. Consumer spending is broken down according to the United Nations' Classification of Individual Consumption By Purpose (COICOP). The shown data adheres broadly to group **. As not all countries and regions report data in a harmonized way, all data shown here has been processed by Statista to allow the greatest level of comparability possible. The underlying input data are usually household budget surveys conducted by government agencies that track spending of selected households over a given period.The data is shown in nominal terms which means that monetary data is valued at prices of the respective year and has not been adjusted for inflation. For future years the price level has been projected as well. The data has been converted from local currencies to US$ using the average exchange rate of the respective year. For forecast years, the exchange rate has been projected as well. The timelines therefore incorporate currency effects.Find more key insights for the total consumer spending on alcohol and tobacco in countries like Europe and Australia & Oceania.