--- title: Most Heavy Drinkers Are Not Alcoholics description: A new report shows that 90% of heavy drinkers are not addicted to alcohol canonical: https://time.com/3599283/heavy-drinkers-alcoholics/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-21T13:07:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:37:06.789Z article:section: Health og:title: Most Heavy Drinkers Are Not Alcoholics og:description: A new report shows that 90% of heavy drinkers are not addicted to alcohol og:url: https://time.com/3599283/heavy-drinkers-alcoholics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d3d5921ee8fb813/69876a335f570f14b1b13b6c/wine-alcohol.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 454216115 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Most Heavy Drinkers Are Not Alcoholics twitter:description: A new report shows that 90% of heavy drinkers are not addicted to alcohol twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d3d5921ee8fb813/69876a335f570f14b1b13b6c/wine-alcohol.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Most People Who Drink Too Much Aren't Alcoholics by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Nov 21, 2014 1:07 PM UTC  Wine Flight Wine FlightBy Stephanie Zell—Flickr RF/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Nov 21, 2014 1:07 PM UTC A [new report](http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/14%5F0329.htm) shows that very few people who drink heavily are actually dependent on alcohol, contrary to some assumptions. For men, excessive drinking means five drinks in a sitting or 15 over the course of the week; for women, four in a sitting or eight over the week. The survey found that 29% of the population met this criteria, but that 90% of heavy drinkers are not alcoholics. Health officials believe this is good news for efforts to reduce excessive drinking. Instead of requiring treatment for an addiction, heavy drinkers could be deterred by measures like higher taxes. Excessive drinking causes 88,000 deaths in the U.S. per year. \[[_NYT_](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/most-heavy-drinkers-are-not-alcoholics-study-finds/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3599283/heavy-drinkers-alcoholics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3599283/heavy-drinkers-alcoholics/"},"headline":"Most People Who Drink Too Much Aren't Alcoholics","datePublished":"2014-11-21T13:07:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:37:06.789Z","description":"A new report shows that 90% of heavy drinkers are not addicted to alcohol","url":"https://time.com/3599283/heavy-drinkers-alcoholics/","keywords":["Addiction","Alcohol","drinking","alcoholism"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d3d5921ee8fb813/69876a335f570f14b1b13b6c/wine-alcohol.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d3d5921ee8fb813/69876a335f570f14b1b13b6c/wine-alcohol.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"454216115","caption":"454216115","creditText":"By Stephanie Zell—Flickr RF/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/addiction/","name":"Addiction"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3599283/heavy-drinkers-alcoholics/","name":"Most People Who Drink Too Much Aren't Alcoholics"}}]}] ```