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. 2020 Oct 29;40(2):01. doi: 10.35946/arcr.v40.2.01
Drinking patterns

  • Female drinkers consume about one-third as much total pure alcohol per year as male drinkers (6.7 liters for females, 19.0 liters for males).1

  • Alcohol use among people age 12 and older: Lifetime—82% male, 78% female; Past year—68% male, 62% female; Past month—55% male, 46% female; Binge (4+/5+)* past month—29% male, 20% female28

DSM-IV AUD† (alcohol abuse or dependence) age 12 and older

  • Past-year AUD—males, 9.2 million (7%); females, 5.3 million (4%)28

  • Percentage who needed and received treatment for DSM-IV alcohol abuse or dependence—males, 9%; females, 9%28

Overall deaths

  • In 2017, 72,558 death certificates listed alcohol as a factor (18,072 females and 54,486 males).64

  • Using death certificates and estimates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated that 93,296 people died from alcohol-related causes each year between 2011 and 2015 (26,778 females and 66,519 males).11

  • The World Health Organization reported that excessive drinking accounted for roughly 3 million deaths (5% of all deaths) worldwide, including 2.3 million deaths for men (8% of deaths) and 0.7 million deaths for women (3% of deaths).1

Cirrhosis deaths

  • In 2017 there were 44,478 deaths due to cirrhosis and 50% (22,246) were caused by alcohol (15,470 deaths among males; 6,776 deaths among females).10

  • Overall, the rate of death from alcohol-related cirrhosis is more than twice as high for men (9.7 per 100,000) than for women (4.1 per 100,000).10

Driving under the influence

  • More men (10%) than women (5%) reported driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) in the past year in 2017.19

Gender gaps are narrowing

  • Differences are shrinking in drinking patterns, AUD, hospitalizations, emergency department visits, DUI, liver disease, and deaths.5,14–16,31

*

Binge drinking: Defined as four or more drinks on an occasion for females and five or more drinks on an occasion for males (4+/5+).

†

AUD: According to criteria for alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).