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by elil17 1247 days ago
According to the NIH, only 5.3% of Americans 12 and older are alcoholics (https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sh...). Factor out the fact that some of those people haven't tried alcohol and you get about 7% addiction liability.
1 comments
robocat 1245 days ago
In New Zealand, according to health.govt.nz:

  18.8% of adults had a hazardous drinking pattern in 2021/22.
  Hazardous drinkers are those who obtain an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score of 8 or more, representing an established pattern of drinking that carries a high risk of future damage to physical or mental health.
I agree that definition of addiction, and alcoholism, vary by country.
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elil17 1243 days ago
Makes sense. I don't currently know any active alcohol abusers (knew some in college), so the 18.8% seems incredibly high to me. That said we all have biased samples
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