In a given year, top 10% of drinkers consume over 50% of all alcohol consumed.

[unokitty]

...in order to break into the top 10 percent of American drinkers, you would need to drink more than two bottles of wine with every dinner...

The top 10 percent of American drinkers - 24 million adults over age 18 - consume, on average, 74 alcoholic drinks per week. That works out to a little more than four-and-a-half 750 ml bottles of Jack Daniels, 18 bottles of wine, or three 24-can cases of beer. In one week.

Or, if you prefer, 10 drinks per day...

As Cook notes in his book, the top 10 percent of drinkers account for well over half of the alcohol consumed in any given year.

...figures come from Philip J. Cook's "Paying the Tab," an economically-minded examination of the costs and benefits of alcohol control in the U.S. Specifically, they're calculations made using the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) data...

"One consequence is that the heaviest drinkers are of greatly disproportionate importance to the sales and profitability of the alcoholic-beverage industry," he writes writes. "If the top decile somehow could be induced to curb their consumption level to that of the next lower group (the ninth decile), then total ethanol sales would fall by 60 percent."

I didn't expect alcohol consumption to be a bell shaped curve. Still, I was surprised to find out that the top 10% consumed half of all the alcohol.

What is your perspective?
Do the figures in graph surprise you?
Do the figures in the graph show what you expected?
Or, do you have a different perspective?

Uno

 

[fskimospy]

Well your chart is a J shaped curve, not a bell. Then again it's likely if you looked at standard deviations it would be a bell shaped curve.

I'm a bit surprised at how the top 10% gets that high. I knew a guy from the Navy who would drink a 24 can case of beer in a night so I know people can get that bad but he's by far the worst I've ever known. (and I know a lot of sailors) To think that such behavior happens in 1 in 10 people is kind of crazy.

 

[Anubis]

74 drinks a week? holy crap
a lot more alcoholics out there then I would have guessed

shit, im pretty sure I didn't have 74 drinks in the past year

 

[DCal430]

Well your chart is a J shaped curve, not a bell. Then again it's likely if you looked at standard deviations it would be a bell shaped curve.

I'm a bit surprised at how the top 10% gets that high. I knew a guy from the Navy who would drink a 24 can case of beer in a night so I know people can get that bad but he's by far the worst I've ever known. (and I know a lot of sailors) To think that such behavior happens in 1 in 10 people is kind of crazy.

It is scary that the 80th to 90th percent already drinks almost 16 drinks a week.

That tells me about 20% of people have some form of alcoholism, from mild to severe.

 

[IronWing]

I grew up with an alcoholic in the family. It doesn't surprise me. What is odd is that being an alcoholic is considered more socially acceptable or more normal than than being a teetotaler.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

I used to really enjoy having a drink, okay quite a few drinks. However, ever since I went through self hypnosis to stop smoking now I really don't care to drink. I average having 2 or 3 bottles of beer and/or 3 to 4 glasses of wine a year for the past 5 years.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

How is that remotely surprising? Have you just never remotely known what an alcoholic was?

 

[smackababy]

I think quite a few people are lying in this survey. And, 10 drinks per day seems a bit excessive, but if I suppose it is in the realm of realistic.

 

[surfsatwerk]

I think quite a few people are lying in this survey. And, 10 drinks per day seems a bit excessive, but if I suppose it is in the realm of realistic.

There are a lot of people who have a problem with booze.

 

[IronWing]

I think quite a few people are lying in this survey. And, 10 drinks per day seems a bit excessive, but if I suppose it is in the realm of realistic.

My dad plowed through a fifth a night for 30 years plus and was a functional alcoholic, being able to have a successful career. I was in my forties before I saw him fully sober. The abuse the human body can tolerate is amazing.

 

[thraashman]

I'm somewhere in the 70-80% it would seem. And I go out drinking fairly often. I don't think I could physically tolerate trying to be in the top 10%, that's a lot of alcohol.

 

[unokitty]

I grew up with an alcoholic in the family. It doesn't surprise me. What is odd is that being an alcoholic is considered more socially acceptable or more normal than than being a teetotaler.

When I was younger, I can remember my Dad, a functioning alcoholic, telling me that he wouldn't trust anyone that didn't drink.

I think that I was well into my 30s before I had any friends that didn't drink...

Where I grew up in Chicago, if you could get home at night without the police being involved and if you could hold a job, you would never be considered as having a alcohol problem...

Anyway, thanks for sharing.

Uno

 

[fskimospy]

I'm somewhere in the 70-80% it would seem. And I go out drinking fairly often. I don't think I could physically tolerate trying to be in the top 10%, that's a lot of alcohol.

I'm actually quite surprised at how quickly it falls off. 60%+ of Americans have less than one drink a week! Then again, by this chart 50% of Americans effectively do not drink. (the 50th percentile has a single drink about once every other month) Maybe it's because I am fairly young and live in New York, but that's surprising to me.

Since this is self-reported data I wonder how they corrected for the well known tendency of people to understate how much they drink. (I'm sure this is available somewhere)

I quite certainly fall around the 80th percentile or so as I go out at least once on weekends and on weeknights here and there. 6 drinks a week? For sure.

 

[Linux23]

sounds about right. i can consume 8-12 drinks per night and get up in the morning, fairly easily. does thou make me a drunk? huuuuuh?

 

[Hugo Drax]

There has to be some kind of difference in alcoholics. I dont like the effects of alcohol myself.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

sounds about right. i can consume 8-12 drinks per night and get up in the morning, fairly easily. does thou make me a drunk? huuuuuh?

Yea, probably. Stop drinking for a bit and see if you feel fine.

 

[Hugo Drax]

sounds about right. i can consume 8-12 drinks per night and get up in the morning, fairly easily. does thou make me a drunk? huuuuuh?

yes.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

There has to be some kind of difference in alcoholics. I dont like the effects of alcohol myself.

Well, most people can enjoy the effects of alcohol some. That's separate from those who are addicts. I would guess you're different from both of those.

 

[Hugo Drax]

Well, most people can enjoy the effects of alcohol some. That's separate from those who are addicts. I would guess you're different from both of those.

for me I can drink 1 beer and I already get a slight buzz which is okay, second beer stronger (average 5 percent beers). but anything more than that and it just makes me groggy and feel like crap.

 

[smackababy]

There has to be some kind of difference in alcoholics. I dont like the effects of alcohol myself.

The difference in alcoholics is their body has developed a dependency on the alcohol. Not liking the effects of alcohol is entirely different. On can like the effects and not consume 10 drinks per day, every day. I've known people who had to have a beer first thing in the morning, or they would get sick and have violent shakes. They were full blown alcoholics. They literally could not function without alcohol in their system due to withdraw symptoms.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I didn't expect alcohol consumption to be a bell shaped curve. Still, I was surprised to find out that the top 10% consumed half of all the alcohol.

It seems like it would look like that for virtually any product. The people who are the most frequent customers spend more on the product. Isn't this pretty basic market analysis? As far as frequent drinkers consuming so much, I am a little surprised that there are apparently 30 million people drinking 10+ beers a day. I've known some alcoholics, but they just barely made that mark, and they certainly never represented 10% of everyone I knew. That's crazy.

 

[smackababy]

It seems like it would look like that for virtually any product. The people who are the most frequent customers spend more on the product. Isn't this pretty basic market analysis? As far as frequent drinkers consuming so much, I am a little surprised that there are apparently 30 million people drinking 10+ beers a day. I've known some alcoholics, but they just barely made that mark, and they certainly never represented 10% of everyone I knew. That's crazy.

Well, I think you might have known that, but since it isn't a steady 10 beers a day, you don't notice. I know my father would drink maybe 6 or so a night on the weeknight, but he'd certainly make up for it on the weekend.

 

[Newell Steamer]

74 drinks per week?! I don't think I've had that many in one year!!

15 drinks per week makes sense - 2 glasses of wine with dinner. But, 10 a day,.. wow.

 

[Genx87]

It is crazy to think about 10 drinks a day. But I would also like a break down on the ages of the biggest offenders. My drinking tapered off quickly in my late 20s. Now I rarely have a drink per week in non-summer months. But in college we would easily drink 8-10 drinks a night from thurs-sat and some times weds-Sun depending on the week. And we had guys in our house that would do that every night. They have since cut back on their drinking to just on the weekends.

But I do know people who drink hard even on weekdays. People showing up to work hungover 3 days a week in their 30s /facepalm

 

[zephyrprime]

It seems from the chart that the top 10% drink way more than 50%. It seems they drink 73.8% of drinks.