Gallup Polls 2012 are in! Do Americans Drink too Much??

Ladies and Gentlemen, the stats are in! According to Gallup Polls 2012 regarding annual alcohol consumption statistics, conducted July 9-12 in 2012, 66% of Americans said that they “have occasion to drink alcoholic beverages such as liquor, wine, or beer,” a third of these say they had no drinks in the seven days just prior to taking that survey. This means roughly four in 10 Americans (44%) appear to be regular drinkers, consuming at least one alcoholic beverage in the past week before taking the survey.

Beer continues to be Americans’ preferred drink, although wine remains a close second, with liquor favored by 22%. That’s more than one out of five who drink something that can be put into a hip flask. Naturally beer and wine do not go into hip flasks, but most people who drink, will sometimes switch from beer to liquor or from wine to something like cognac or brandy.

Only 12% of the drinkers reported consuming eight or more drinks in the past week leading up to the survey date. That means they each averaged more than one drink per day. Gallup found that 22% of the drinkers said they sometimes “drink too much.”

That number was up from 17% the previous year, but was similar to the percentages in most other years over the past decade of the annual study.

Drinking habits, naturally, vary considerably by age, gender, and race. While approximately equal proportions of men and women say they ever have occasion to drink, men do tend to drink more. Specifically, men who drink report consuming 6.2 drinks, on average, in the past week before the survey, compared with the 2.2 drinks consumed by the women drinkers.

Younger adults seem to drink more alcohol than older adults do, and men from ages 18 to 49 are the heaviest drinkers of any age/gender group. The largest differences are seen in the self-reported “over-drinking,” with 36% of younger men admitting they sometimes drink too much, compared with only 18% of older men, 20% of younger women, and only 8% of older women.

Was that enough numbers for you?? Now they just need to make a flask that has a built in calculator and we’ll be set!

On that note, stay tuned for more goodies tomorrow on the Flask.com blog! And, remember: if and when you do drink, please drink responsibly!

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