🌅 Today’s stat: 400,000

SOURCE

Shield et al. (2020)

WHAT TO KNOW

• Globally, over 740,000 cancer cases were attributable to alcohol consumption in 2020, as were more than 3 million alcohol-related deaths. In the U.S., alcohol consumption is related to 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths each year.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Alcohol is a known, direct cause of cancer in the head, neck, esophagus, liver, colon, and breast, and the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S. (behind only smoking and obesity). While scientists have known about the relationship between alcohol and cancer for at least two decades, less than half of all Americans (45%) today are aware that alcohol consumption increases cancer risk, far fewer than those who know that cancer is linked to tobacco use (89%) and excessive sunlight (82%).

CONNECT THE DOTS

• While alcohol use is common in the U.S. (72% of adults report consuming one or more drinks per week), the share of young adults ages 18 to 24 who report ever drinking alcohol has fallen from 72% in 2001-03 to 62% in 2021-23. At the same time, the share of Americans 55 and older that drink has climbed from 49% to 59%.