Report Identifies States With Highest Binge Drinking Rates, Excessive Alcohol Consumption Costs

A report published this month by NiceRx Health identifies states with the highest rates of binge drinking, highest costs caused by excessive alcohol consumption, and most alcohol-related deaths.

NiceRx is an advocacy service that assists eligible individuals with accessing FDA-approved prescription medications from pharmaceutical companies for a fixed monthly cost.

The new report is based on data from the World Population Review, which has recorded each state’s consumption of gallons per capita in 2022, total cost of excessive alcohol consumption  as calculated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and data from the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics to calculate alcohol-related deaths.

The NiceRx report included the following findings:

• Binge drinking: Despite being one of the smallest and least populated states in the nation, New Hampshire was identified as the state with the highest binge drinking rate in 2022 at 4.67 gallons consumed per capita. Delaware (3.52 gallons per capita), Nevada (3.42), North Dakota (3.16), and Montana (3.10) rounded out the top 5.
• Costs caused by excessive alcohol consumption: Costs factoring into this figure primarily consisted of lost workplace productivity, healthcare expenses, property damage, motor vehicle crash costs, and criminal justice expenses. At $1165 per person living in the state ($827.2 million total), Alaska had the highest per-capita excessive alcohol consumption cost rate in the US, followed by New Mexico ($1084 per person), Wyoming ($1052), Colorado ($1005), and California ($940).
• Alcohol-related deaths: New Mexico also topped the list of states with the highest average rate of alcohol-related deaths with 34.3 per 100,000 people, based on data from 2019. This was followed by Wyoming (28.5), Alaska (23.9), South Dakota (21.2), and Montana (20.3).

NiceRx also shared findings from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism that despite the legal drinking age in the US being 21, 25.8% of individuals aged 18 and older had engaged in binge drinking within the past month, with 6.3% of the same age group having engaged in past-month heavy alcohol use, according to 2019 data.

The full report is available on the NiceRx Health website.

Reference

NiceRx Health. Alcohol across the US: which states have the most binge drinkers & alcohol deaths? NiceRx Health. Published October 6, 2022.