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.

As of 2023, the U.S. states with the highest prevalence of binge drinking among adults were North Dakota, Iowa, and South Dakota. In North Dakota, around 21 percent of adults stated they binge drank in the last 30 days in 2023. Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks among women and five or more drinks among men on a single occasion. Binge drinking among young people Binge drinking in the United States is most common among those aged 21 to 25 years, with around 34 percent of those in this age group reporting binge drinking in the past 30 days in 2023. Men are generally more likely to engage in binge drinking than women, however the percentage of men aged 18 to 25 years who binge drink has decreased greatly over the past two decades, with binge drinking rates higher among women in this age group in 2023. In 2002, around 50 percent of men aged 18 to 25 years reported binge drinking in the past 30 days, with this rate dropping to 28 percent by the year 2023, compared to 29 percent among women. Even among young people enrolled in college, a demographic that is infamous for heavy drinking, rates of binge drinking dropped from 44 percent in 2002, to 29 percent in 2020. Reasons for this may be less social pressure to drink as well as more widespread awareness of the dangers of heavy alcohol use. Health risks of alcohol use In addition to the short-term health risks of alcohol use such as injury from car crashes, alcohol poisoning, and risky sexual behavior, excessive alcohol use can also increase one’s risk of developing a number of diseases and health conditions. For example, excessive alcohol use can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, certain types of cancers, and liver disease as well as dementia and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. The most common types of alcohol-associated cancers in the United States are female breast cancer, colon and rectum cancer, and lip, oral cavity, and pharynx cancer.

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.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Alcoholic Beverages Away from Home in U.S. City Average (CUUR0000SEFX) from Dec 1977 to Feb 2025 about alcohol, beverages, urban, consumer, CPI, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Alcoholic Beverages by Quintiles of Income Before Taxes: Fourth 20 Percent (61st to 80th Percentile) (CXUALCBEVGLB0105M) from 1984 to 2023 about alcoholic beverages, percentile, tax, expenditures, income, and USA.

This dataset provides alcohol use prevalence estimates for any drinking by county, year, and sex for all states and counties, the District of Columbia, and the US as a whole for 2002-2012. "Any" drinking defined as at least one drink of any alcoholic beverage in the past 30 days. The data also include changes by percent for the period.

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.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees: Leisure and Hospitality: Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages) in New York (SMU36000007072240001) from Jan 1990 to Jan 2025 about alcohol, beverages, NY, services, employment, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees: Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages) in Illinois (SMU17000007072240001A) from 1990 to 2024 about alcohol, beverages, IL, services, employment, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Alcoholic Beverages by Age: from Age 25 to 34 (CXUALCBEVGLB0403M) from 1984 to 2023 about alcoholic beverages, age, 25 years +, expenditures, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Alcoholic Beverages by Generation: Birth Year from 1981 to 1996 (CXUALCBEVGLB1608M) from 2019 to 2023 about alcoholic beverages, birth, expenditures, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees: Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages) in California (SMU06000007072240001A) from 1990 to 2024 about alcohol, beverages, CA, services, employment, and USA.

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 145 billion dollars by 2027. 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 the District of Columbia, North Dakota, and Montana. 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 2022, around 8.5 percent of those aged 21 to 25 reported driving a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol in the preceding year.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees: Leisure and Hospitality: Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages) in Nebraska (SMU31000007072240001SA) from Jan 1990 to Jan 2025 about alcohol, beverages, NE, services, employment, and USA.

This collection focuses on how changes in the legal drinking age affect the number of fatal motor vehicle accidents and crime rates. The principal investigators identified three areas of study. First, they looked at blood alcohol content of drivers involved in fatal accidents in relation to changes in the drinking age. Second, they looked at how arrest rates correlated with changes in the drinking age. Finally, they looked at the relationship between blood alcohol content and arrest rates. In this context, the investigators used the percentage of drivers killed in fatal automobile accidents who had positive blood alcohol content as an indicator of drinking in the population. Arrests were used as a measure of crime, and arrest rates per capita were used to create comparability across states and over time. Arrests for certain crimes as a proportion of all arrests were used for other analyses to compensate for trends that affect the probability of arrests in general. This collection contains three parts. Variables in the Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data file (Part 1) include the state and year to which the data apply, the type of crime, and the sex and age category of those arrested for crimes. A single arrest is the unit of analysis for this file. Information in the Population Data file (Part 2) includes population counts for the number of individuals within each of seven age categories, as well as the number in the total population. There is also a figure for the number of individuals covered by the reporting police agencies from which data were gathered. The individual is the unit of analysis. The Fatal Accident Data file (Part 3) includes six variables: the FIPS code for the state, year of accident, and the sex, age group, and blood alcohol content of the individual killed. The final variable in each record is a count of the number of drivers killed in fatal motor vehicle accidents for that state and year who fit into the given sex, age, and blood alcohol content grouping. A driver killed in a fatal accident is the unit of analysis.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees: Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages) in Wisconsin (SMU55000007072240001A) from 1990 to 2024 about alcohol, beverages, WI, services, employment, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees: Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages) in New Jersey (SMU34000007072240001A) from 1990 to 2023 about alcohol, beverages, NJ, services, employment, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Merchant Wholesalers, Except Manufacturers' Sales Branches and Offices: Nondurable Goods: Beer, Wine, and Distilled Alcoholic Beverages Inventories/Sales Ratio (R4248IM163SCEN) from Jan 1992 to Jan 2025 about wine, beer, alcohol, merchant, beverages, wholesale, ratio, nondurable goods, sales, goods, manufacturing, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Alcoholic Beverages by Race: Black or African American (CXUALCBEVGLB0905M) from 1984 to 2023 about alcoholic beverages, African-American, expenditures, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees: Leisure and Hospitality: Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages) in Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights, IL (MD) (SMU17169747072240001) from Jan 1990 to Dec 2024 about alcohol, beverages, Chicago, IL, services, employment, and USA.