Apparent Per Capita Alcohol Consumption: National, State, and Regional Trends, 1977-2007. Surveillance Report No. 87

摘要

This surveillance report on 1977-2007 apparent per capita alcohol consumption in the United States is the 23rd 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 2007: United States per capita consumption of ethanol from all alcoholic beverages combined in 2007 was 2.31 gallons, representing a 1.8 percent increase from 2.27 gallons in 2006. The increase is due to the increase in per capita consumption of spirits (from 0.71 to 0.73 gallons ethanol), beer (from 1.19 to 1.21 gallons ethanol), and wine (from 0.37 to 0.38 gallons ethanol). Between 2006 and 2007, changes in overall per capita consumption of ethanol included increases in 40 States and the District of Columbia, decreases in 8 States, and no change in 2 States. Analysis of overall per capita alcohol consumption by census region between 2006 and 2007 indicated increases in all of the four regions: the West (2.1 percent), the Northeast (1.8 percent), the Midwest (1.8 percent), and the South (0.9 percent). Healthy People 2010 has set the national objective for reducing per capita alcohol consumption to no more than 1.96 gallons ethanol. However, there has been an increasing trend in per capita consumption since 1999. To meet the 2010 objective, per capita alcohol consumption will need to decrease by 15.2 percent, or about 5.3 percent per year from 2008 through 2010.