# 10% of American drinkers account for over 50% of drinks taken. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 2, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142 "2014-10-02T00:26:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/21 "2014-10-02T12:53:27Z")
Stupid top 10%. The drunk just keep getting drunker while the rest of us poor bastards just get along sober day after day. #occupybourbonstreet ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/22 "2014-10-02T14:05:14Z")
Do I drink 74 drinks per week? Probably. Do I drink four 750ml bottles a week? No. What are they counting as a drink, liquorwise - 1.5 oz? Because if so, I don’t know how they’re arriving at that number. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/23 "2014-10-02T14:24:48Z")
It doesn’t sound implausible to me at all. The 80/20 rule is one of the first things they teach you in business 101. That’s the rule stating 80% of any given business will come from 20% of its customers. [pareto principle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle) ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/24 "2014-10-02T14:57:25Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Do I drink 74 drinks per week? Probably. Do I drink four 750ml bottles a week? No. What are they counting as a drink, liquorwise - 1.5 oz? Because if so, I don’t know how they’re arriving at that number. Hate to break it to you, but 1.5 oz is about 44.4ml… so 74 drinks would be just under 3300ml, or just under four and a half 750ml bottles. (Coming to you as a lightweight from that second 10%. I feel like this statistic besmirches my reputation as a skilled drinker.) ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/25 "2014-10-02T15:01:39Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > **That is insane.** I’m a heavy drinker with binge-drinking tendencies (I don’t do the “two beer buzz”). I get drunk (drunk = more than ten shots of liquor or its equivalent in wine or beer) three or four nights a week on the average. 74 drink equivalents per week would be like doing that every single day. > > **Do these 10%ers not have jobs? How do they function?!** Emphasis mine. I guess that everyone’s idea of “insane” differs, because i was going to ask you pretty much the same question. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/26 "2014-10-02T15:16:14Z")
> [@Kiros](#): > > Hate to break it to you, but 1.5 oz is about 44.4ml… so 74 drinks would be just under 3300ml, or just under four and a half 750ml bottles. > > (Coming to you as a lightweight from that second 10%. I feel like this statistic besmirches my reputation as a skilled drinker.) Oh shit, I forgot how to math. ☹ Yeah, I’m maybe at about a little over three 750ml bottles weekly, but not more than _four_. I’m not an alcoholic, jeez. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/27 "2014-10-02T15:52:40Z")
I’m thinking there’s some problem with the granularity of the graph. They broke it up into deciles, which probably mislead the amounts. I suspect that they’re rounding up, and there are a lot of people who may do something like the following who get lumped into the last decile: [ul] [li]4 beers on Sunday watching football[/li][li]1 beer on Monday[/li][li]2 beers on Tuesday[/li][li]1 beer on Wednesday[/li][li]2 beers on Thursday[/li][li]3 beers on Friday during happy hour.[/li][li]4 drinks (2 glasses of wine) while eating out with their spouse[/li][/ul] That’s a total of 17 drinks in a week, well above the 15.28 category, but WAY lower than the 73.85 category. I’m betting that they’re lumped into that last decile while drinking less than a quarter the amount of alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/28 "2014-10-02T15:55:32Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Do I drink 74 drinks per week? Probably. Do I drink four 750ml bottles a week? No. What are they counting as a drink, liquorwise - 1.5 oz? Because if so, I don’t know how they’re arriving at that number. You have over ten drinks a day, each with 1-1.5 ounces of alcohol in them? Consider that a four-ounce glass of wine has only about .75 ounces of alcohol in it. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/29 "2014-10-02T15:58:56Z")
I said ten 1.5 oz \*drinks \*of liquor a day. Most of the liquor I consume is in the 80-90 proof zone. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/30 "2014-10-02T16:08:10Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > I said ten 1.5 oz \*drinks \*of liquor a day. Most of the liquor I consume is in the 80-90 proof zone. That’s part of the slipperiness of this whole question - a “drink” can be anything from a shortie light beer to a mixed cocktail with 4 ounces of go juice in it. Others have pointed out other flaws in the statistics. I’m calling bullshit on the whole thing - scare tactic, or grant bait, or PR stunt, or just plain stupidity of number-munging. (Fifteen ounces of 86 proof is about 6-1/2 ounces of alcohol. So yes, I guess you are drinking around 60-70 “drinks,” as equated to 1 ounce of ethanol = 1 drink, which is the usual standard. Uh, that’s a lot, even from the perspective of someone who routinely drank about half that much until recently.) ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/31 "2014-10-02T16:17:48Z")
Eh, the number isn’t really all that unrealistic. Even a mixed cocktail should contain at least one shot (1.5 oz) of liquor. One can easily drink ten of those. Hell, over Tuesday and Wednesday, I consumed one 750ml bottle of Jameson. Work that out over a week, and it’s 3.5 bottles. Getting over 4 isn’t hard. I now know what my new year resolution is! ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/32 "2014-10-02T16:22:39Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Eh, the number isn’t really all that unrealistic. Even a mixed cocktail should contain at least one shot (1.5 oz) of liquor. One can easily drink ten of those. Hell, over Tuesday and Wednesday, I consumed one 750ml bottle of Jameson. Work that out over a week, and it’s 3.5 bottles. Getting over 4 isn’t hard. > > I now know what my new year resolution is! Getting over 4? (I’m funny) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/33 "2014-10-02T16:26:39Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > That’s part of the slipperiness of this whole question - a “drink” can be anything from a shortie light beer to a mixed cocktail with 4 ounces of go juice in it. > > Others have pointed out other flaws in the statistics. I’m calling bullshit on the whole thing - scare tactic, or grant bait, or PR stunt, or just plain stupidity of number-munging. > > (Fifteen ounces of 86 proof is about 6-1/2 ounces of alcohol. So yes, I guess you are drinking around 60-70 “drinks,” as equated to 1 ounce of ethanol = 1 drink, which is the usual standard. Uh, that’s a lot, even from the perspective of someone who routinely drank about half that much until recently.) THe “standard” drink is 1.5 oz of 80 proof spirits (40% abv), a 12 oz 5% abv beer, or a 5 oz glass of 12% abv wine. That’s 17.75 ml of straight ethanol. I’m betting that’s what the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions uses as their standard drinks, and that’s where the data in the article comes from. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/34 "2014-10-02T16:33:52Z")
This was probably said somewhere above, but if it wasn’t – 24 million is not 10% of American _ **drinkers,** _ it is 10% of American _ **people** _, probably roughly half of whom are not drinkers or drink no more than a drink or two a year and virtually never actually order and pay for their own drink, but just occasionally accept one socially, and have no alcohol in their house for their own consumption, but only to offer guests. I would not classify these people as “drinkers” for meaningful statistical purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/35 "2014-10-02T16:35:25Z")
Remind me to open a dive bar next to MeanOldLady’s place. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/36 "2014-10-02T17:37:07Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > 10% of drinkers take 50% of drinks? Sounds like a variation on [the Pareto principle,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle) which says that for many phenomena, 80% of the effects, come from 20% of the causes; YMMV. > [@An\_Gadai](#): > > That is mentioned in the article. Yes. And the alcohol industry has been aware of this for quite some time. They may pay lip service to responsible drinking, but that’s not how they make their bucks. (I don’t have a problem with that ethically. I do have a problem with industry lobbying, but that’s another topic.) ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/37 "2014-10-02T17:39:32Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Remind me to open a dive bar next to MeanOldLady’s place. I’ll invest. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/38 "2014-10-02T18:25:19Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Remind me to open a dive bar next to MeanOldLady’s place. I don’t know about that. I hear she’s a mean drunk. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/39 "2014-10-02T18:57:46Z")
I’m in the late 20s/early 30s urban, young professional demographic and hang out with plenty of drinkers (myself included). 74 drinks/week on _average_ seems crazy to me. I might hit that pace for short bursts every once in awhile, but I can’t imagine sustaining it for very long. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142/40 "2014-10-02T19:14:37Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > This was probably said somewhere above, but if it wasn’t – 24 million is not 10% of American _ **drinkers,** _ it is 10% of American _ **people** _, probably roughly half of whom are not drinkers or drink no more than a drink or two a year and virtually never actually order and pay for their own drink, but just occasionally accept one socially, and have no alcohol in their house for their own consumption, but only to offer guests. I would not classify these people as “drinkers” for meaningful statistical purposes. Well it’s actually 10% of American **adults** but my thread title could have been more accurate yes. US population is approaching 320 Million. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-of-american-drinkers-account-for-over-50-of-drinks-taken/700142.md?page=3)