Alcohol has long been one of the few legal mind-altering substances in the United States. While legal, messaging around its use – and misuse – has often been mixed. Moderate levels of drinking, such as a glass of wine or beer with dinner, were once recommended as a way to promote better heart health and to help control blood sugar and cholesterol levels.^1,2  

Lately, however, the public health sphere has become awakened to the fact that even a small amount of alcohol can lead to negative health consequences, increasing risks for a number of chronic diseases and different types of cancer.³ These risks are even more pronounced for women who, biologically, process alcohol differently than men, and face higher odds of developing chronic health conditions, disease, and even increased risk of death from alcohol-induced causes.^4,5

Using vital statistics data from the CDC’s WONDER system, a new brief from SHADAC researchers examines the concerning rise in alcohol-attributable deaths among women, which underscore larger patterns of growth seen across the U.S. We also examine differences in alcohol-attributable deaths between demographic groups, including by age, race and ethnicity, and geographic location during the COVID-19 pandemic period (2019-2022).

Key findings from our analysis of alcohol-attributable deaths during this time include:

• While men have traditionally seen high rates of alcohol-attributable deaths, women saw a 33% increase in alcohol-attributable deaths from 2019 to 2022 – an acceleration over the 28% growth in the rates of their male counterparts.

• Alcohol-attributable death rates for American Indian and Alaska native people, already at historic highs, surged by over 20 percentage points (from 54.0 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019 to 78.4 per 100,000 people in 2022) – well over the rate for the overall U.S. population (13.5 deaths per 100,000 people).

• Rates also increased for people living in non-metro (i.e., rural) areas during the pandemic, rising by 36% from 14.5 per 100,000 people in 2019 to 19.6 per 100,000 people in 2022.

Each of these individual trends make up an alarming larger pattern of accelerating alcohol-attributable death rates reaching all the way back to 2006, the year that the data for alcohol-attributable deaths first revealed any increase. While rates for years prior to 2006 remained generally stable, rates began steadily rising from 2006 onward, growing by nearly 30% from 7.4 alcohol-attributable deaths per 100,000 people to 10.4 per 100,000 people just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. During the pandemic, this rate grew again by 30% from 10.4 deaths per 100,000 people to 13.5 death per 100,000 in 2022 in just three years – a worrying acceleration.

To learn more about alcohol-related deaths and our analysis of these trends, read the full brief, "Sobering Statistics: Acceleration of Alcohol-Attributable Deaths Across the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic".

SHADAC has also built an interactive map that shows rates of alcohol-attributable deaths for the U.S. and the states from 2006 to 2022 for you to explore the data yourself. Start exploring below.