In 2007, the average age at first alcohol use among recent initiates aged 12 to 49 was 16.8 years, similar to the corresponding 2006 estimate (16.6 years).
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On average someone is killed by a drunk driver every 45 minutes. In 2008, an estimated 11,773 people died in drunk driving related crashes—a decline of 9.8 percent from the 13,041 drunk driving related fatalities of 2007.
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Among youths aged 12 to 17 in 2007, whites had higher rates of current alcohol use than any other racial/ethnic group. In 2007, 18.2 percent of white youths were current drinkers, while 8.1 percent of Asian youths, 10.1 percent of black youths, 12.5 percent of those reporting two or more races, and 15.2 percent of Hispanic youths used alcohol in the past month.
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An early age of drinking onset is associated with alcohol-related violence not only among persons under age 21 but among adults as well.
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Underage alcohol use is more likely to kill young people than all illegal drugs combined.
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The total cost attributable to the consequences of underage drinking was $61.9 billion per year in 2001 dollars. This is $5.4 billion in medical costs, $14.9 billion in work loss and other resource costs, and $41.6 billion in lost quality of life.
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In 2007, the U.S. Surgeon General estimates that approximately 5,000 persons under age 21 die from alcohol-related injuries involving underage drinking each year.
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Underage drinkers are susceptible to immediate consequences of alcohol use, including blackouts, hangovers, and alcohol poisoning and are at elevated risk of neurodegeneration (particularly in regions of the brain responsible for learning and memory), impairments in functional brain activity, and the appearance of neurocognitive defects. Heavy episodic or binge drinking impairs study hairs and erodes the development of transitional skills to adulthood.
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People who begin drinking before age 14 are seven times more likely than those who began drinking after age 21 to report being in a motor vehicle crash because of their drinking.
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