This surveillance report on 1977–2008 apparent per capita alcohol consumption in the United States is the 24th in a series of consumption reports produced annually by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
Findings are based on alcoholic beverage sales data, either collected directly by the Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System (AEDS) from the States or provided by beverage industry sources. Population data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau are used as denominators to calculate per capita rates.
The following are highlights from the current report, which updates consumption trends through 2008:
- In the United States, per capita consumption of ethanol from all alcoholic beverages combined in 2008 was 2.32 gallons, representing a 0.4 percent increase from 2.31 gallons in 2007.
- Between 2007 and 2008, changes in overall per capita consumption of ethanol included increases in 33 States and the District of Columbia, decreases in 10 States, and no change in 7 States.
- Analysis of overall per capita alcohol consumption by census region between 2007 and 2008 indicated increases of 0.9% in the Midwest and 0.4% in the Northeast.
- Healthy People 2010 has set the national objective for reducing per capita alcohol consumption to no more than 1.96 gallons of ethanol. However, since 1999, there has been a trend of increasing per capita consumption. To meet the 2010 objective, per capita alcohol consumption will need to decrease by 15.5 percent, or about 8.1 percent per year from 2009 through 2010.
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