The Cost Of The American Hangover: $249 Billion

By MARC TORRENCE (Patch National Staff)

It’s Saturday night, a night lots of people reserve for relaxing with a drink or two. Maybe more, if they have a designated driver.

For those who overindulge, you might want to take a look at the results of a study by the Centers for Disease control on how much that hangover is costing.

Excessive drinking cost the U.S. economy $249 billion, or $2.05 per drink, in the form of lost productivity, medical costs, crime and more, a CDC new study has found.

And that’s a conservative figure, going back to 2010, the last year the CDC examined for the study. Still, it’s a significant increase from 2006, when the CDC says hitting the bottle cost the economy $223.5 billion, or $1.90 per drink.

“The increase in the costs of excessive drinking from 2006 to 2010 is concerning, particularly given the severe economic recession that occurred during these years,” Robert Brewer, head of the CDC’s Alcohol Program and one of the study’s authors, said in a news release.

In New Jersey, those costs added up to an impact of $6.175 billion on the state’s economy, $1.70 per drink, ranking it 11th in the country in terms of total impact, just ahead of Virginia ($6.126 billion) but behind New York (third, $16.33 billion) and Pennsylvania (sixth, $9.544 billion).

“Effective prevention strategies can reduce excessive drinking and related costs in states and communities, but they are under used,” the CDC said.

Here were some other findings from the study:

• The CDC defines binge drinking as “drinking five or more drinks on one occasion for men or four or more drinks on one occasion for women.”
• 77 percent of those 2010 costs were a result of binge drinking.
• Of the 50 states and D.C., California had the nation’s highest cost at $35 billion.
• North Dakota had the smallest with $488 million.
• Underage drinking cost the economy $24.3 billion.

Read the CDC release here and the full study here.