Underage Drinking Statistics

Underage drinking and driving

At Edgar Snyder & Associates, we’ve seen firsthand the devastation caused by underage drinking. Every year, senseless tragedies happen throughout the school year — especially around prom and graduation.

Looking for more statistics? View our accident statistics page.

General Statistics (According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism):

There are about 10.8 million underage drinkers in the United States.
Seventy percent of young people engage in heavy drinking by ages 19 and 20.
Three-fourths of 12th grade students, more than two-thirds of 10th grade students, and about two in five 8th grade students have consumed alcohol (more than a few sips) in their lifetime.
Nearly half (45%) of 12th graders have used alcohol in the past month, which is more than cigarettes and marijuana combined.
29% of 12th grade students, 22% of 10th grade students, and 11% of 8th grade students have engaged in binge drinking.
Many teenagers are misinformed about alcohol; about one-third of teens incorrectly think that one shot of liquor has more alcohol than a 12-oz can of beer.
Although 60% of teens aged 15 and 16 reported drinking within a 12 month period, only 31% of their parents believed that their child drank during that time period.
From age 13 to 21, the percentage of people who report binge drinking increases from an estimated 1% to 50%.
Most of the criminal charges in alcohol poisoning death cases were against those who obtained alcohol for underage drinkers.
During the past month, 26.4% of underage people age 12-20 used alcohol.
During the past month, 17.4% of underage people age 12-20 participated in binge drinking.
Among underage drinkers, 30.8% paid for the alcohol the last time they drank. Among those who did not pay for the alcohol they drank, 37.4% got it from an unrelated person age 21 or older; 21.1% received it from a parent, guardian, or other of-age adult family member.
People age 12 to 20 years drink 11% of all the alcohol consumed in the U.S.
On average, underage drinkers consume more drinks per drinking occasion than adult drinkers.
In 2009, the Monitoring the Future Survey reported that 37% of 8th graders and 72% of 12th graders had tried alcohol, and 15% of 8th graders and 44% of 12th graders drank during the past month.
Thirty-two percent of drivers 16 to 20 with invalid driver licenses had BACs .08 or higher.
Male drivers were roughly twice as likely as female drivers to have BACs of .08 or higher.
Unrestrained drivers 16 to 20 were over 3 times as likely to be alcohol-impaired than restrained drivers of that age range.

2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Statistics

Among high school students, during the past 30 days:

42% drank some amount of alcohol.
24% binge drank.
10% drove after drinking alcohol.
28% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol.

Demographic Statistics:

Rates of underage binge drinking were higher in the Northeast and Midwest than in the South or West.
Rates of underage drinking and binge drinking were slightly higher at the opposite ends of the economic spectrum.
Among younger teens, slightly more girls reported drinking than boys did. In the mid-teen years, boys and girls reported drinking at about the same rate. Among those 18- to 20-years-old, boys drank at a higher rate than girls.
For those over the age of 12, males were almost twice as likely as females to drink and drive.

Obtaining Alcohol Statistics:

Forty percent of teens said they obtained alcohol from an adult for free in the past month.
One in four teens said they received alcohol from an unrelated adult. One in 16 obtained it from a parent or guardian while one in 12 got it from another adult family member.
About 4% of surveyed teens said they got alcohol from their own home.
An estimated two-thirds of alcohol sellers don’t ask for identification, therefore potentially selling to minors.

Car-Related Statistics:

About 5,000 people under the age of 21 die each year as a result of underage drinking, 1,900 of those deaths are from auto accidents.
About one in three high school students has been a passenger in a car driven by someone who had consumed alcohol.
Alcohol is involved in 31% of teenage car accident fatalities.
There is a much better chance that an individual will drink and drive if they had their first drink prior to age 19.
The average blood-alcohol level of intoxicated underage car accident victims was 0.40 percent, five times the legal limit for driving.
Compared to every other age group, young people age 15-20 years old are more often involved in alcohol-related car accidents. Age 21 is the peak for fatal crashes.

College Statistics:

Freshmen college students are at the greatest risk for dying from binge drinking and alcohol poisoning.
Almost half of all the alcohol consumed by students attending four-year colleges is consumed by underage students.
83 underage college students died from alcohol poisoning from 1999 to 2005.

More Underage Drinking Statistics:

2008:

In 2008, young people between 18 and 20 enrolled full time in college were more likely to drink alcohol in general, binge drink, and heavily drink than those not enrolled full time.

2007:

In 2007, 27.9% of people between 12 and 20 years of age reported underage drinking within the past month.
Seventy-two percent of high school seniors reported having consumed alcohol as of 2007.
In 2007, about 7.8% of 16 or 17 year olds and 18.3% of 18- to 20-year-olds admitted to driving drunk within the last year.
Ninety-two point two percent of 12th graders, 82.6% of 10th graders, and 62% of 8th graders reported that it’s "very easy" or "fairly easy" to get alcohol in 2007.
In 2007, for those underage drinkers who did not purchase their own alcohol the last time they drank, an unrelated person over age 21 bought it for them 37.2% of the time. Nineteen percent of the time, parents, guardians, or other family members provided it.

2006:

In 2006, more than half of those between 12 and 20 years of age had consumed alcohol in their lifetime and about a quarter had within the past month.
For drivers 15-20 years old involved in car accident in 2006, 25% had a BAC of .08 or higher.

2005:

About 43% of high school students surveyed had consumed alcohol in the past 30 days.
2,035 young people 15-20 years old were killed in alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents in 2005; this accounts for 33% of all car accidents for that age group.
In 2005, underage drinkers was involved in 1,789 fatal car crashes.