Worldwide around 2.6 million deaths were caused by Alcohol in 2019. Of them
700,000 are from injuries and accidents. An estimated 474,000 deaths by
cardiovascular diseases were caused by alcohol in 2019.
Of these deaths 2 million are men while 600,000 are women.
An estimated 400 million people which was 7% of the World’s population in
2019 aged 15 years or older lived with alcohol use disorders. Of this 209
million people or 3.7% of the adult population lived with alcohol addiction.
The highest alcohol guzzlers are in Europe. The highest level of alcohol
related deaths in 2019 occurred in Europe at 52.9 per 100,000 populations. The
2nd highest were in Africa at 52.2.
There had been progress on alcohol related deaths between 2010 to 2019 as
the deaths per 100,000 people came down by 20.2% or about 10 out of 100,000
which is substantial.
In 2019 overall the people who are being treated for alcohol abuse varies
in countries from 1% to 14%.
In 2019 4.4% of the cancers diagnosed globally are on account of alcohol
consumption. In that year men drank 8.2 litres of alcohol per year on average
while women drank 2.2 litres.
What is the position of India on alcohol consumption? A 2019 report by WHO
found that alcoholism in India has increased by 38% in the past one decade to
that and approximately 77 million people in India consume alcohol. Over one
third of accidental deaths on Indian roads are caused by drunken driving.
In India the lower strata of people are more susceptible to alcohol addiction than the higher strata.
In India Alcohol addiction is recognized as a mental disorder, but is seldom treated that way. People suffering from alcoholism are often socially ostracised and do not find many sources of support. Rehabilitation centres and group meetings like Alcoholics Anonymous are mostly centered in urban areas, while government programmes for de-addiction are limited to medical colleges and tertiary hospitals. The availability of alcohol is universal; the treatment for its addiction, however, is hard to access.
Alcoholism is not the only risk attached to alcohol. The past belief that alcohol is safe “in moderation” has been pushed aside now. There is no safe limit to alcohol consumption;
There are recommendations to place health warnings on alcohol, as there are on cigarettes, for quite some time now. The evidence on the efficacy of health warnings meets stiff opposition from the alcohol industry worldwide. The sale of consumable alcohol is a trillion-dollar market, and its lobbyists fight all attempts to act against alcohol consumption everywhere.
The answer given by Minister Anupriya Patel in Feb 2025 is revealing. As per the National Health Survey conducted between 2019-21 for adults between 15 and 49, 22.4% men drank alcohol and so do just 0.7% of the women.
As per this survey the state with the highest consumption of
Alcohol is Goa with 59.1% of the men and 4.8% of the women consuming alcohol.
Next is Arunachal where 56.6% of the men and 17.8% of the women
consume alcohol. As you can see a much higher number of women consume alcohol in this state than in Goa.
The next highest and the top among the bigger states is surprisingly
Telangana with 50% and 4.9%.
In other South Indian states the alcohol consumption is fairly
high to moderate among men but low among women unlike in Telangana.
Tamilnadu with 32.8% & 0.1%
AP 31.2% & 0.2%
Kerala 26% & 0.3%
Karnataka 23.1% & 0.3%
The North western states drink least amount of alcohol.
Gujarat 5.9% & 0.1%
Rajasthan 11.5% & 0.1%
Bihar & Maharastra too have lesser alcohol consumption levels.
Bihar 17% & 0.1% Maharashtra 17.2% & 0.2%
UP 16.5% & 0.1%
