State of Health: Binge Drinking in the U.S.

Be wary of stereotypes about binge drinkers. You may believe that the typically afflicted person is college-aged and binge drinking and need to address this form substance abuse doesn’t happen as often among successful people. But like so many stereotypes, these fall far short of the truth.

For starters, a large majority of binge drinkers are older than 26, although hundreds of college students die every year from alcohol-related injuries, and thousands more are assaulted by other students under the influence.  Meanwhile, binge drinking turns out to be more common among middle- to higher-income households than it is in lower-income households.

The result is that whether you drink or not, we all can lose out. Rising health care costs, lost productivity, and increased crime result from widespread binge drinking — and all of these hurt our society as a whole.  Read on to learn where alcohol abuse happens most, and what you can do to battle binge drinking in the U.S.

Please reference the visual for a full list of sources.