Fact Sheets - Underage Drinking

Underage Drinking

Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug among youth in the United States.1

• Excessive drinking is responsible for more than 4,300 deaths among underage youth each year, and cost the U.S. $24 billion in economic costs in 2010.2,3
• Although drinking by persons under the age of 21 is illegal, people aged 12 to 20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States.4 More than 90% of this alcohol is consumed in the form of binge drinks.4
• On average, underage drinkers consume more drinks per drinking occasion than adult drinkers.5
• In 2013, there were approximately 119,000 emergency rooms visits by persons aged 12 to 21 for injuries and other conditions linked to alcohol.6

Drinking Levels among Youth

The 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey7 found that among high school students, during the past 30 days

• 30% drank some amount of alcohol.
• 14% binge drank.
• 6% drove after drinking alcohol.
• 17% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol.

Other national surveys

• In 2016, the National Survey on Drug Use and HealthExternal reported that 19% of youth aged 12 to 20 years drink alcohol and 12% reported binge drinking in the past 30 days.8
• In 2017, the Monitoring the Future SurveyExternal reported that 8% of 8th graders and 33% of 12th graders drank during the past 30 days, and 2% of 8th graders and 19% of 12th graders binge drank during the past 30 days.9

Consequences of Underage Drinking

Youth who drink alcohol 1,5,10 are more likely to experience

• School problems, such as higher absence and poor or failing grades.
• Social problems, such as fighting and lack of participation in youth activities.
• Legal problems, such as arrest for driving or physically hurting someone while drunk.
• Physical problems, such as hangovers or illnesses.
• Unwanted, unplanned, and unprotected sexual activity.
• Disruption of normal growth and sexual development.
• Physical and sexual assault.
• Higher risk for suicide and homicide.
• Alcohol-related car crashes and other unintentional injuries, such as burns, falls, and drowning.
• Memory problems.
• Abuse of other drugs.
• Changes in brain development that may have life-long effects.
• Death from alcohol poisoning.

In general, the risk of youth experiencing these problems is greater for those who binge drink than for those who do not binge drink.10

Early initiation of drinking is associated with development of an alcohol use disorder later in life.11

Prevention of Underage Drinking

Reducing underage drinking will require community-based efforts to monitor the activities of youth and decrease youth access to alcohol. Recent publications by the Surgeon General1 and the Institute of Medicine5 outlined many prevention strategies for the prevention of underage drinking, such as enforcement of minimum legal drinking age laws, national media campaigns targeting youth and adults, increasing alcohol excise taxes, reducing youth exposure to alcohol advertising, and development of comprehensive community-based programs.