It may FEEL like we collectively drank a lot of alcohol during those house-bound Covid years, but it was only the 5th-most America has ever drunk as a country!
This is based on data going all the way back to 1850!
Let’s see the four times we drank more than we did during the pandemic…
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The data we used comes from an institute within the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services.
It shows how much we drank as a country throughout history (per capita, so it factors in population growth), going back before the Civil War (1850).
Let’s see the drunkest times we’ve had as a country…
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Annual gallons of ethanol per person: 2.51
That converts to this many alcoholic drinks per person: 536 drinks per year (10.3 drinks per week)
We have data up to 2021, which was a bigger drinking year than 2020, the effective start of Covid in the U.S.
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Annual gallons of ethanol per person: 2.53
That converts to this many alcoholic drinks per person: 540 drinks per year (10.4 drinks per week)
The data gets a little sparse when we get into the 1800’s, but we know that 1860 (the year before the Civil War started) was a bigger drinking year than 1850 or 1870.
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Annual gallons of ethanol per person: 2.58
That converts to this many alcoholic drinks per person: 550 drinks per year (10.6 drinks per week)
The Wright Brothers made their famous Kitty Hawk flight in 1903, and it wasn’t long after that we hit this height for alcohol consumption.
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Annual gallons of ethanol per person: 2.61
That converts to this many alcoholic drinks per person: 556 drinks per year (10.7 drinks per week)
Alright, BASICALLY the 70’s…we start in 1969 for this high-drinking period.
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Annual gallons of ethanol per person: 2.67
That converts to this many alcoholic drinks per person: 569 drinks per year (10.9 drinks per week)
The party didn’t stop in the 70’s … our highest drinking period as a nation roughly coincided with the Reagan 80’s.
Raising a neon-tinged glass to the Madonna years!
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Once again, here are the five periods in American history with the most alcohol consumption per person:
1) 1980-1987
2) 1969-1979
3) 1906-1915
4) 1860
5) 2021
You could also combine the period from 1969 to 1987 as the biggest drinking era.
If you lived through this time, does this ring true to you? Let us know in the comments!
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