DANGEROUS TRENDS –
September 18, 2025 – Fewer Americans say they drink alcohol now than they have done for decades, but for those that do, the habit appears to have become dramatically deadlier over time, with the alcohol-related death rate in the U.S. almost doubling in the last twenty years. Researchers at UCLA found that the rate of alcohol-related death increased between 1999 and 2024, with an especially sharp uptick during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. And while such deaths have declined since that peak, they remain markedly high.
“These findings emphasize the urgent need for targeted policies to reduce excessive alcohol consumption and improve access to treatment,” the authors write in a paper published Tuesday in PLOS Global Health.
The new findings jibe with past studies that also suggested alcohol-related deaths in America have been climbing for decades. But it remained unclear as to the specific kinds of deaths caused by alcohol, or whether the increase in deadly drinking seen during the pandemic has been sustained.
