Alcohol Use, by Age Group (Tables 7.1 to 7.4)

Because legal use of alcohol is restricted to adults aged 21 or older, it is not surprising that it is used more by adults than by youths. Levels of lifetime, past year, and past month alcohol use in 1997 were about two times higher among adults than among those aged 12 to 17 (see Tables 7.1 through 7.3). Although past year use and past month alcohol use were highest among 18 to 34 year olds, adults aged 35 or older still reported about two times the rate of use as adolescents. Nevertheless, even though alcohol use is illegal for 12 to 17 year olds, 40% admitted to using alcohol in their lifetime, 34% to past year use, and 21% to past month use.

Table 7.4 presents a more detailed age analysis for alcohol use. Rates of current alcohol use rose for each age group until around age 21 to 25, after which the rates of use leveled off. The largest age gradients in the prevalence of alcohol use occurred among youths in their teenage years. In particular, only about 13% of youths aged 12 or 13 had used alcohol in the past year. For those aged 14 or 15, the prevalence doubled (35%), and by ages 16 and 17, more than half (53%) had used alcohol in the past year. Similarly, the rate of past month use tripled from those aged 12 or 13 (7%) to those aged 14 or 15 (21%), and more than doubled for those aged 18 to 20 (53%). This phenomenon reflects an age-of-onset effect: First-time use of alcohol occurs most often at these ages.

This page was last updated on December 30, 2008.