--- title: Americans Are Drinking Themselves to Death at Record Rates description: Americans are drinking themselves to death at a record-breaking rate, according to a report. canonical: https://time.com/4159409/alcohol-deaths-america/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-22T22:14:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:01:20.285Z article:section: Health og:title: Americans Are Drinking Themselves to Death at Record Rates og:description: More than 30,700 Americans died from alcohol-induced causes last year og:url: https://time.com/4159409/alcohol-deaths-america/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Americans Are Drinking Themselves to Death at Record Rates twitter:description: More than 30,700 Americans died from alcohol-induced causes last year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Americans Are Drinking Themselves to Death at Record Rates ## Video: Should I Drink Red Wine? [Watch (HLS stream): Should I Drink Red Wine?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JLVLyuEq.m3u8) (1:35)  _Published 2015-03-12. Cheers to your health! All five of our experts give red wine a purple-stained smile._  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 22, 2015 10:14 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 22, 2015 10:14 PM UTC Americans are drinking themselves to death at a record-breaking rate, [according to a report](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/22/americans-are-drinking-themselves-to-death-at-record-rates/?tid=sm%5Ftw). More than 30,700 people in the country died in 2014 from alcohol-related causes, including alcohol poisoning, the Washington _Post_ reports, citing new federal data. Last year’s rate of 9.6 deaths per 100,000 people is an increase of 37% since 2002, according to the newspaper. More people died from alcohol in 2014 than from overdoses of prescription painkillers and heroin combined, the _Post_ said. Those causes did not include deaths from drunk driving or homicides committed while drunk. Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable death, [according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention](http://www.cdc.gov/features/alcohol-deaths/index.html). It accounted for about 88,000 deaths each from 2006 to 2010, health officials said. \[[_Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/22/americans-are-drinking-themselves-to-death-at-record-rates/?tid=sm%5Ftw)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4159409/alcohol-deaths-america/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4159409/alcohol-deaths-america/"},"headline":"Americans Are Drinking Themselves to Death at Record Rates","datePublished":"2015-12-22T22:14:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:01:20.285Z","description":"More than 30,700 Americans died from alcohol-induced causes last year","url":"https://time.com/4159409/alcohol-deaths-america/","keywords":["Alcohol","Drink"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/alcohol/","name":"Alcohol"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4159409/alcohol-deaths-america/","name":"Americans Are Drinking Themselves to Death at Record Rates"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Should I Drink Red Wine?","description":"Cheers to your health! 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