How Many People Have Died From Alcohol?

Alcohol is one of the most widely consumed substances in the U.S. It is also one of the most deadly. When calculating the number of people who die from alcohol-related causes each year, the focus must fall on two areas: acute (or immediate) fatalities and people who die from causes related to chronic drinking.

Acute Alcohol-Related Death

Alcohol poisoning[i] (i.e., alcohol overdose) is one of the most common acute causes of death directly attributable to excessive drinking. It occurs when a person consumes enough alcohol to severely depress normal function in the brain’s communications pathways. Specific underlying reasons for fatal alcohol overdoses include:

• Loss of normal breathing
• An unsustainably low heart rate
• An unsustainable drop in normal body temperature
• Disruption of the gag reflex, which would allow the body to protect itself by rapidly expelling alcohol

In addition to tracking alcohol poisoning deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) track a range of acute fatalities that occur indirectly from excessive drinking[ii]. The list of these secondary causes includes:

• Homicides
• Suicides
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Drownings
• Injuries sustained in falls
• Injuries sustained in fires
• Work-related injuries
• Accidental gun injuries
• Exposure to the elements
• Poisoning from something other than alcohol

Chronic Alcohol-Related Death

Excessive drinking is well-known for the damage it can do to organ systems throughout the body. Every year, Americans die from changes produced in organs exposed to high amounts of alcohol over extended periods of time. The CDC also tracks these fatalities, which result from conditions such as:

• Alcohol abuse and alcoholism
• Alcohol-related pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas)
• Alcohol-related liver disease (including hepatitis and cirrhosis)
• Alcohol-related liver cancer
• Cancer of the esophagus
• Alcohol-related psychosis
• Hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke
• High blood pressure
• Heart disease
• Heart muscle damage
• Breast cancer
• Prostate cancer

How Many People Die From Acute Causes?

The CDC’s most recent information on alcohol poisoning fatalities[iii] shows that roughly 2,221 Americans over the age of 14 die in the average year. In sheer numbers, the majority of these fatalities occurred in European-Americans. However, in terms of percentages, people with American Indian/Alaska Native heritage die most frequently. Men die from alcohol poisoning roughly three times as often as women.

The CDC’s most recent information on the total number of acute, alcohol-related fatalities shows approximately 9,909 fatalities occur annually. When all acute causes are grouped together, men die a little more than twice as often as women.

Common Causes of Acute Death

The single most common cause of acute, alcohol-related death is accidents involving cars, trucks, SUVs and other vehicles. The latest figures for these fatalities come from another federal agency called the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The NHTSA data shows that nearly 10,000 Americans died in alcohol-related crashes in 2014[iv]. The number killed equaled nearly one-third of all U.S. driving-related fatalities that year.

The second-most common cause of acute death, as noted, is alcohol poisoning. Other common sources of alcohol-related fatalities include:

• Poisoning in which some other substance is the actual cause of death (roughly 1,681 deaths annually)
• Suicides (roughly 1,636 deaths annually)
• Homicides (roughly 1,551 deaths annually)
• Injuries sustained in falls (roughly 1508 deaths annually)
• Injuries sustained in fires (roughly 218 deaths annually)

How Many People Die From Chronic Causes?

The CDC’s most recent figures on chronic alcohol-related deaths show that approximately 7,717 fatalities occur annually. Compared to women, men are even more likely to die from these long-term causes than from acute causes. In fact, their fatality rate for the chronic effects of excessive drinking is roughly 2.5 times higher than the rate for women.

Common Causes of Chronic Alcohol-Related Fatalities

The single most common cause of chronic, alcohol-related death is alcohol-related liver disease. Approximately 2,940 Americans die from this cause each year. Other common, long-term sources of death include:

• Alcohol abuse and/or alcoholism (roughly 1,150 fatalities every year)
• Hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke (roughly 418 fatalities every year)
• High blood pressure (roughly 321 fatalities every year)
• Liver cancer (roughly 199 fatalities every year)
• Alcohol-related pancreatitis (roughly 196 fatalities every year)
• Alcohol-related psychosis (roughly 131 fatalities every year)
• Alcohol-related heart muscle damage (roughly 103 fatalities every year)

Problems With Compiling Accurate Statistics

No one knows for sure exactly how many people have died from alcohol-related causes in any given period. There are several reasons for this. First, medical examiners and coroners don’t always look for all possible contributing factors when assessing causes of death. In addition, even when noting the presence of alcohol, these professionals sometimes can’t determine what role — if any — drinking played in a fatal outcome. What’s more, not all people who die receive an autopsy, and the presence of alcohol can easily go unreported altogether.

Undoubtedly, millions of Americans have died from alcohol-related causes down through the years. However, the modern-day problems of calculating the actual number of fatalities pale in comparison to the challenge of accurately assessing the historical relationship between alcohol and death. Still, it’s clearly worth noting that alcohol currently stands as the country’s number three contributor to preventable fatalities, ranking only behind tobacco use and the combination of poor nutrition and a lack of exercise.

The Need for Alcohol Treatment

Avoidance of heavy drinking is the most likely way to avoid dying from acute or chronic alcohol-related causes. Unfortunately, many people are trapped in a pattern of harmful intake linked to alcohol abuse and/or alcoholism. Transformations Treatment Center helps you avoid the short-term and long-term dangers of heavy drinking by addressing the underlying causes of dysfunctional alcohol use.