Death from alcohol intoxication. Alcohol consumption statistics in the world

According to statistics, the death rate from alcohol in Russia is more than 4%. This figure is much more than the death of people from military conflicts, AIDS, viruses combined. The total number of deaths from alcohol in the world is 2.6 million lives annually. Russia accounts for approximately 600 thousand people, it turns out that every year all the people of a small town die. A scary figure that tends to develop: the number of deaths from alcohol is growing year by year and this figure is not going to stop.

Causes of death from alcohol

The death rate from alcoholism is largely related to the economic component. If in the countries of Africa and Asia, people, starting to live better, are drawn into addiction, the inhabitants of Europe and Russia are increasingly indulging in drunken drunkenness due to a decrease in social status. In addition, alcohol in our country has always been a way to "cure emotional distress." They yelled at work - drink, scandals at home - get drunk, a celebration with friends - raise a couple of glasses.

Fact! The number of patients with alcoholism is growing, the growth rate is 1.5-2% annually. These figures include not only adults, but also teenagers from 14 years old. Due to one reason or another, every fifth citizen of Russia dies every year from alcohol dependence, toxication and pathologies.

According to official data, our country ranks fifth in the ranking of countries in terms of the amount of alcohol consumed per capita. But these are only indicators of statistics, which are frankly not complete enough. No one takes into account degraded patients who do not work, therefore they do not have any documents, and are not included in the list of the population census. They don't exist, but they die every day and every year. And how many people really died, drinking to death, no one will tell.

Experts believe that due to the complex social and economic component, in Russia over the past and this year, there has been an excess of mortality. The reason is the "rejuvenation" of alcoholics. Beer, cocktails, various alcohol-containing tonics attract a huge number of teenagers. Among the respondents aged 13-15, 65% already know the taste of alcohol very well, and 28% were ill from poisoning with low-quality alcohol.

Current position

The sharp increase in prices led to the fact that people began to buy low-quality alcohol more often, and mortality statistics also quickly went up. For six months of this year, 68% of patients got alcohol poisoning. On the day of death, approximately 1,400 lives are taken, and this number of deaths is precisely from alcohol.

Fact! Every year, up to 300,000 people suffer in road accidents caused by drunk drivers. More than half of them die, many remain crippled for life. 15% of the indicated number of people are children under the age of 10 years.

The numbers are really scary. Considering that drunk drivers are mostly young people aged 18-35, the situation is that in a couple of years there will not be a single sober citizen left in the country. In addition to the fact that addiction to alcoholic beverages leads to degradation and increased mortality, it is the cause of the birth of handicapped children, miscarriages in early and late pregnancy, casual sexual relationships and, as a result, abortions. And what abortions lead to in youth does not need to be explained - infertility.

The consequences of abuse are expressed not only in high mortality from alcohol:

1. Increased suicide rates among normally healthy fit people (62.1%);
2. In a state of intoxication, a huge number of murders are committed (72.2%);
3. From cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, 68% of all patients die;
4. Pathologies of the cardiovascular system, which appeared as a result of alcohol abuse, lead to death in 23.3%.

It should be remembered that anyone who has drunk low-quality alcohol can die. In terms of the number of poisonings, Russia also ranks first - last year about half a million such cases were registered, and 10% of patients died before the ambulance arrived. And these are people who have asked for help, have a family, relatives and are not malicious alcoholics. They just wanted to drink a glass of vodka or cognac, from which death occurred, and how many people die unidentified - this data is not provided by any statistical center.

To drink or not to drink?

If a person dies not from old age and a long illness, confirmed by medication, he is sent for an autopsy. Pathologists detect the presence of alcohol in the blood in 70% of the dead. Often, at the request of relatives or officials, this fact is not mentioned in the documents so that the death statistics of this particular region are not violated. Therefore, we do not know exactly how many people die because of alcohol.

Fact! On average, a Russian begins to taste alcohol at the age of 13. At the same time, only a third of the number are boys, the rest are girls. Every fifth person under the age of 14 drinks alcohol (vodka, beer, cocktails) every day. Sociologists will look for the reasons for the surge in alcoholism in this age group, we can only state the data: by the age of 20, such people are completely dependent on alcohol, they are distinguished by deviant behavior, a labile psyche and a complete lack of goals. That is, a person still lives, but as a person he dies .

Doctors are sounding the alarm: according to statistics, a young body gets used to alcohol much faster and is more difficult to cure. And in 79% of cases, binge alcoholism leads to the death of adolescents. This happens under the influence of alcoholic beverages, against the background of the consumption of which depression occurs.

Today, Russia is in a serious position: for every thousand deaths, a third occurs due to alcohol. In such numbers, people died only in the "violent 90s", when there was rampant crime and gunshot wounds. Age gradations are the same: of the total number of deaths, 55% died before reaching 35 years. From alcohol, a person does not die immediately, of course, not when poisoned by counterfeit products. First you want to be cheerful, then attachment sets in, and only then does alcohol become a necessary component in solving any problems.

Unfortunately, in our country there are no effective tendencies to motivate a person not to drink at all, as happens, for example, in Muslim countries. In different quantities and with different frequency, but we all drink. And the worst thing is that today those who die at the age of 35-45 exceed the death rate of older people in number. In fact, humanity is dying out, and all because the very culture of drinking has died, alcohol has become more accessible. And now a person with any income, regardless of age, can buy a drink.

Mortality from alcoholism in the world

When people talk about death from alcoholism, they mean a complex of causes associated with alcohol abuse. These are: Accidents - 29.6%. Oncological diseases - 21.6%. Cirrhosis of the liver - 16.6%. Cardiovascular diseases - 14%. Other reasons - 18.2%. On average, 4% of deaths worldwide every year are caused by excessive alcohol consumption. This corresponds to 2.5 million people.

Ranking countries by level of alcohol consumption

Despite the fact that the first lines in the leaders in alcohol consumption are confidently and traditionally occupied by European countries, the attitude of European residents to alcohol is heterogeneous and differentiated by country. Consider the states that are in the top five with the highest alcohol consumption per capita. Data based on 2014 WHO report.

Belarus: The country with the most drinking population: 17.5 liters of alcohol equivalent per capita per year. 26.5% of the population drink alcohol. The proportion of deaths associated with the consequences of alcohol consumption is 34.7%. Life expectancy - 72.1 g.

Moldova: 16.8 liters of alcohol equivalent per year. 32.2% of the population drink alcohol. The proportion of deaths associated with the consequences of alcohol consumption is 33.1%. Life expectancy - 81.4 g.

Lithuania: Life expectancy - 73.9 years. The proportion of deaths associated with the consequences of alcohol consumption - 30.9%. 36.7% of the population drink alcohol. 15.4 liters of alcohol equivalent per year.

Russia: 15.1 liters of alcohol equivalent per year. 19.3% of the population consumes alcohol. The proportion of deaths associated with the consequences of alcohol consumption is 30.5%. Life expectancy - 70.5 g.

Romania: 14.4 liters of alcohol equivalent per year. 7.9% of the population consumes alcohol. The proportion of deaths associated with the consequences of alcohol consumption is 8.9%. Life expectancy - 68.7 g.

The top ten countries with the highest alcohol consumption also included other countries in Central and Eastern Europe: Ukraine (13.9 liters). Andorra (13.8 l). Hungary (13.3 l). Czech Republic (13 l). Slovakia (13 l).

Economically developed countries are ranked in the following positions: 18th place - France (12.2 liters). 23rd place - Germany (11.8 liters). 25th place - Great Britain (11.6 l). 42nd place - the Netherlands (9.9 l). 48th place - USA (9.2 l). 141st place - Israel (2.8 l).

Alcohol abuse is known to contribute to the development of somatic and mental diseases and directly or indirectly is one of the most important causes of death in the population. Alcoholism and related diseases are second only to cardiovascular diseases and malignant neoplasms as the cause of death. Only directly from alcoholism in the USA about 100 thousand die annually, in England - more than 40 thousand [Gukasyan A. G., 1968], in France - 18 thousand people [Dobrovolsky Yu. A., 1968]. According to O. Geneke (1968), the mortality rate from alcoholism per 100,000 population in 1965 was 11.9 in France; in the SFRY - 2; US-1.4; Sweden - 0.9; Canada-1; HRR -0.7; Poland -0.3; Czechoslovakia -0.2.

Many scientists [Strelchuk IV, 1973; Baryot A., 1957; Lederman M. S., 1958; Steudler F., 1974, etc.] note a direct relationship between the death rate from alcoholic diseases and per capita alcohol consumption. In particular, the French researcher F. Steudler (1974) traces a direct relationship between mortality from liver cirrhosis (Table 11) and per capita alcohol consumption in certain countries of the world.

The number of deaths from cirrhosis of the liver in France increased from 2763 cases in 1946 to 17463 in 19.67. The number of patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals for alcoholism increased from 6704 in 1952 to 25937 in 1966.

Statistical data are given on the increase in mortality from alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. Mortality from alcoholic cirrhosis in these countries has increased by 3-6 times in recent years. J. Chevallier (1968) notes that the mortality among patients with complications of alcoholism treated in a therapeutic hospital was 11.6%. Most often, death occurred from hepatic coma. The average age of deceased women is 56 years, men - 60 years.

From cirrhosis of the liver caused by excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, 3140 people died in 1976, which is 14.8 per 100,000 population.

A statistical survey organized by US insurance companies showed that the average death rate of systematic drinkers is almost 2 times higher than non-drinkers. Alcohol abuse, according to American authors, reduces the average life expectancy by about 20 years. It is no coincidence that in the capitalist countries some insurance companies refuse to insure the life of alcoholics or set large insurance premiums for them.

Alcohol abuse is associated with suicide, which is one of the most important causes of death in a number of Western countries. Suicide among people suffering from alcoholism is 10 times more common than among the general population. So, according to the Australian researcher J. Santamaria (1972), on the basis of alcoholism occurs from 17 to 22.4% of all suicidal attempts. According to J. Moser (1974), up to 32.8% of people suffering from alcoholism in various countries make suicide attempts. In the United States, 15,000 people commit suicide every year, and 25,000 people die from diseases that are directly caused by alcohol.

The American magazine "US News and World Report" in the article "The Growth of Alcoholism in the USA and New Measures to Combat It" (1973, No. 10) cites data that alcohol abuse is the cause of half of all fatal transport accidents, half of all homicides, a quarter of suicides; 80 thousand deaths per year are directly or indirectly related to alcoholism.

According to the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the city of Kuibyshev, death from ethyl alcohol poisoning accounts for 7.6% of all cases of violent death and sudden deaths.

According to R. Costello, S. Schneider (1974), the main causes of death in patients with alcoholism are cardiovascular diseases, accidents, acute alcohol intoxication and liver cirrhosis. The authors found that the largest proportion of mortality occurs at the onset of alcoholism, by the first 5-6 years of its development. Violent death and death from acute alcohol intoxication is more often the lot of young people, and death from cardiovascular diseases and cirrhosis of the liver is more common for older people.

The works of G. Lowe, Hodges, A. Johnson (1974) show that in the state of Georgia, in 12.9 cases per 100,000 of the population, death is associated with alcohol consumption. In 67.8% of the dead, death was directly related to alcoholism, alcoholic psychosis and liver cirrhosis. All the deceased had a high concentration of alcohol in the blood.

W. Schmidt, J. Sint (1972), based on epidemiological studies of the causes of death in patients with alcoholism, conclude that the main causes leading to death are cancer of the respiratory and digestive systems, pneumonia, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicidal tendencies. These causes account for 2/3 of all deaths. In the remaining third, cardiac pathology ranks first. Mortality from sclerotic and degenerative changes in the heart muscle in patients with alcoholism was 2 times higher than among the general population (the authors explain this by alcohol intoxication, a special emotional state, years of smoking, lack of adequate nutrition in patients with alcoholism). In the etiology of cancer, according to the authors, it is not so much alcohol intoxication that plays a role, but smoking abuse. Mortality from alcoholism is highest among young people. The authors distinguish between acute and chronic effects of alcohol leading to death. In acute alcohol intoxication, death occurs as a result of an accident, suicide, alcoholic psychosis, pneumonia; with chronic alcohol intoxication - from cancer of the larynx, pharynx, esophagus, alcoholic psychosis, heart disease, pneumonia, cirrhosis of the liver.

Alcohol abuse is one of the pressing problems of modern world society. According to statistics, Russia has taken one of the largest slices of this liquor pie. It occupies one of the leading positions in the list of world countries, especially when it comes to states that are characterized by a developed economic economy. Mortality from alcohol in Russia is quite high and has begun to rise noticeably in the past few years. In addition, the problem of alcoholism is also relevant for other post-Soviet countries, such as the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine.

Historical origins

Alcoholic beverages gained popularity in Tsarist Russia. Despite the fact that the state is taking serious measures to change the situation, the overall picture does not change, but rather gets worse every day or with every new sociological study.

Russia consistently ranks among the world's top five according to these distasteful rankings. However, the dynamics of the development of alcoholism, as well as the segments of the population captured by it, cause the greatest concern. According to the media, addiction to alcohol is increasingly developing among the younger generation, and the issue is extremely acute.

Looking at the figures for alcohol consumption in the Soviet Union, you can see that there were two sharp jumps. The first of them happened in the mid-70s and by the beginning of the 80s the figure had reached 10.8 liters per annum per person. The second occurred at the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, which is explained by the unstable economic and political situation in the state at that time.

Our regular reader shared an effective method that saved her husband from ALCOHOLISM. It seemed that nothing would help, there were several codings, treatment at the dispensary, nothing helped. An effective method recommended by Elena Malysheva helped. ACTIVE METHOD

A long-standing addiction to the use of strong drinks led to the formation of a kind of tradition, which was fixed on the mental level. Certain groups of people consider drinking alcoholic beverages, if not prestigious, then at least a worthy occupation. The younger generation, which is easily influenced, picks up a bad habit that becomes more and more difficult to break over the years. Thus, an important stage in the personal formation of a person is violated, which affects both the demographic situation in the state and the social one.

Complete a short survey and receive a free brochure "Culture of Drinking Drinks".

What alcoholic drinks do you drink most often?

How often do you drink alcohol?

Do you have a desire to "hangover" the day after drinking alcohol?

Which of the systems do you think alcohol has the greatest negative impact on?

In your opinion, are the measures taken by the government to limit the sale of alcohol sufficient?

Statistics by country

According to studies, 25% of the Russian population completely abandoned the use of alcohol. Almost half of the country's citizens (about 42%) allow themselves such liberties several times a year and on special occasions. 19% of respondents indulge themselves in alcohol-containing drinks 2-3 times a month, and just over 10% really abuse and drink almost every day.

There are several main factors that have a key impact on the amount of alcohol consumed by the population of a country:

Alcohol abuse

• standard of living, which includes not only the economic and political aspect, but also the socio-cultural one;
• traditions of alcohol consumption, where the preferred type of alcohol plays a special role;
• measures taken by the state to combat addiction, as well as the quality of treatment for people who suffer from it.

The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation reports on the positive dynamics of the decrease in the number of annual liters per capita. During 2015, this figure dropped from 13.5 to 11.5 liters, and by the end of 2016, the mark dropped to a value of 10 liters. It should be noted that the positive dynamics may be due, among other things, to the demographic crisis.

Up to a certain point, the number of deaths, indirectly or directly caused by alcohol, has decreased. However, the aggravation of the financial and economic situation in 2014 led to the fact that the death rate from alcohol returned to an upward trend. Alcohol kills more than 500,000 people every year, 4 out of 5 of its victims are men. 20% of all deaths among the representatives of the stronger sex, one way or another, are associated with alcoholic beverages. Through simple mathematics, statistics show that a bad habit takes more than 1,300 lives every day.

Comparison with other states

Alcohol can shorten human life not only directly, but also indirectly. This is a container parameter that includes both death from alcohol poisoning and from an accident on the road caused by the drunken state of the driver or pedestrian. According to scientists, one serving of alcohol takes about 7 hours of life, so people who abused it and died much earlier than the national average (65 years for men and 76 years for women) should also be taken into account when calculating statistics.

Due to the large number of factors that some research centers take into account, while others do not, the information they provide may vary slightly. The World Health Organization provides the results of the work done, allowing to estimate the death rate from alcohol in Russia and the world at the beginning of 2016. The following figures are in liters per capita:

statistics on alcoholism

1. Moldova - 18.22.
2. Czech Republic - 16.45.
3. Hungary - 16.27.
4. Russia - 15.76.
5. Ukraine - 15.60.
6. Estonia - 15.57.
7. Andorra - 15.48.
8. Romania - 15.30.
9. Slovenia - 15.19.
10. Belarus - 15.13.

Alcohol found the least popularity in countries such as:

The main consumers of alcoholic products in the world are the countries of Eastern Europe, but the level of influence of alcohol on mortality also depends on the strength of the most preferred drinks. The inhabitants of Moldova most often drink wine, the Czechs are indifferent towards beer, but the inhabitants of Russia most often prefer vodka.

Supermortality from alcohol in Russia is associated with several key factors. Drinking alcohol has long been one of the most common methods of spending leisure time, which the younger generation, willy-nilly, inherits from the elders. Russia is the world leader in terms of the level of teenage alcoholism, which prevents the proper formation of the body and, as a result, leads to a decrease in human life expectancy. Not the last role in this matter is played by the unstable economic situation, when the recovery is often replaced by a recession, which negatively affects the unemployment rate.

Together with the factor of consumption tradition, the crisis situation generates a cumulative effect. This is confirmed by statistical data, according to which the peak of alcohol abuse occurred in the early 90s, when the formation of the modern Russian state was not easy. It is also worth considering the fact that Russians more often prefer strong alcohol to low-alcohol drinks, which has an extremely negative effect on the human body.

People die from alcohol not only in Russia, but all over the world. After assessing the magnitude of the problem in 16 countries in North, Central and South America, the Washington-based Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) identified alcoholism as a major cause of premature death on these continents. Reporting on their research published in the latest issue of Addiction magazine .

Statistics, as you know, are a tricky business, and with regard to mortality from alcoholism, they are doubly tricky. If the average number of alcoholics in a particular area can still be determined by the amount of sold and home-made alcohol and a number of other factors, then it is not always easy to find out whether the death of a particular person is associated with alcohol consumption, and indeed whether he was an alcoholic, is not always easy: alcoholic death is often masquerades as death from a traditional fatal disease. Therefore, the researchers focused on cases in which alcohol was a "necessary" cause of death, that is, those in which death would not have occurred in the absence of alcohol consumption.

It turned out that in 16 American countries, alcohol kills an average of almost 80 thousand people a year.

“The mortality rates found in our study,” write authors Vilma Gavrichicheski and Maristela Monteiro, “are just the tip of the iceberg, indicating that the problem is much more serious. There are many diseases and circumstances that lead to death and are associated with the use of alcohol. Among them are tuberculosis, cardiovascular disease, stroke, epilepsy, suicide, traffic accidents, violence, etc. We examined only those cases where death was directly related to alcohol consumption.

In fact, the number of deaths where alcohol played a significant role is much higher.”

The highest rates of alcohol-related deaths were found in the Central American countries of El Salvador (27.4 per 100,000 deaths per year), Guatemala (22.3) and Nicaragua (21.3). It is noteworthy that in almost all countries surveyed, including the United States and Canada, the main alcoholic beverage is beer; wine is preferred in Argentina and Chile; and only four countries, including the three listed with the highest mortality rates, have a large proportion of consumption of spirits. Cuba is in fourth place in terms of alcohol mortality.

As expected, the main alcohol-related mortality is among men - 84%. However, the gender ratio varies greatly from country to country. Thus, in El Salvador, the risk of death from alcohol for men is 27.8 times higher than for women, in Nicaragua it is 18.9 times higher, and in Cuba - 14.8 times. In Canada and the US, alcohol kills men only 3.2 times more often than women. This could be somehow explained by a high standard of living or a highly developed principle of gender equality, however, for some reason, Peru almost closely adjoins this highly developed pair, where women die from alcohol 4.3 times less often.

This risk also varies greatly across the 16 countries across age groups. If in Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Paraguay and the USA the maximum mortality rate occurs for people aged 50-69 years, then in Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela this risk starts to increase earlier and increases from 40 to 49 years, after which it stabilizes and begins to decline from the age of seventy.

The situation, of course, is alarming, but still obscure, since it is not clear with what to compare the American "tip of the iceberg" identified by RANO experts. In the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10), there are many diseases and situations that lead to death due to alcohol consumption.

For a long time, the Russian statistical authorities took into account only three types of alcohol-related mortality - mortality due to alcoholism, alcoholic liver disease, and poisoning by alcohol or its surrogates.

Only since 2005 have additional data been collected on deaths due to alcoholic cardiomyopathy, alcoholic pancreatitis, and alcoholic degeneration of the nervous system. The importance of alcohol in cerebrovascular accidents is still not taken into account.

One way or another, according to, about half a million people a year in our country die prematurely due to alcohol.

Alexander Nemtsov Mortality in Russia: general and alcohol poisoning

In Europe, according to WHO published in 2013 report, the situation is also not the best.

For European men, every 7th death, and for women, every 13th death is due to alcohol consumption.

In general, in Europe, 120 thousand people die every year from alcohol. It is curious that in European countries alcohol consumption has been steadily declining since the early 1990s, but the eastern sector of the EU spoils the picture. Alcohol consumption here, having begun to decline in the first years of the new millennium, began to increase again. The leaders are Hungary, Romania and the Baltic countries. Accordingly, alcohol-related mortality is also high here: 70-100 deaths per 100,000 people.