When you’re having a drink with friends, it feels like a fun, reasonable thing to do.
The numbers, however, disagree. Thousands of people die each year due to alcoholism, with causes ranging from cancer to suicides to automobile accidents.
If you need more reasons to become sober, consider the following sobering statistics about the impact of “just a few beers”:
1. US consumers spend more than $250 Billion dollars on alcohol each year
US residents spent $253.8 Billion dollars on alcohol in 2018, a figure that’s up 5% from the previous year.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that 1% of US household budget is spent on alcohol on average, adding up to more than $5000 per household per year.
2. One in 3400 US residents is killed by alcohol-related causes annually
According to NIH data, 95,000 US residents die of alcohol-related causes such as cancers, liver disease, or automobile accidents each year. Accounting for US population averages, this is approximately one out of every 2400 people in the country per year.
This trend may be on the rise, as the mention of alcohol in death certificates has nearly doubled in the past decade, according to reporting from the CDC.
3. Alcohol consumption can increase divorce rates 10–20%
Studies find that alcohol is more problematic when one spouse does not drink, or drinks much less than the other.
Research into the topic also finds that alcohol consumption can increase divorce rates by 10–20%.
4. Drunk driving accounts for a quarter of US annual automobile deaths
about 28% of annual US autombile deaths are due to drunk drivers, a cause of wrecks that accounts for about a quarter of accidents each year in the US, and 36,560 deaths in 2018 alone.