Prevalence of alcohol use and alcohol-use disorder

Evidence from the World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health Surveys – 29 surveys carried out in 27 countries or country regions between 2001 and 2015 – suggests that alcohol use and AUD are highly prevalent worldwide.^[1] Analyses of the 2016 GBD study showed that alcohol-use disorder (AUD) was the most prevalent of all substance-use disorders globally, although with considerable variations between regions.^[2] Whilst the prevalence has declined over time, the increase in population translates to an increase in the number of cases of AUD – in 2016, this equated to an estimated 100.4 million cases of AUD globally.^[2]

References:
[1] Glantz MD, Bharat C, Degenhardt L, et al.; WHO World Mental Health Survey Collaborators. The epidemiology of alcohol use disorders cross-nationally: findings from the World Mental Health Surveys. Addict Behav 2020; 102: 106128.

[2] GBD 2016 Alcohol and Drug Use Collaborators. The global burden of disease attributable to alcohol and drug use in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet Psychiatry 2018; 5 (12): 987–1012.