Americans’ ‘spirits’ are high, study finds

Americans’ ‘spirits’ are high, study finds


Nation was part of the pre-Prohibition Temperance movement, and in nineteen-twenty, about nine years after she died, the United States finally forbade the consumption of alcohol… a constitutional ban that lasted for thirteen years.

But it would seem we Americans have been doing our darnedest to make up for lost time ever since.

A recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paints a picture of American drinking habits that find us a long way from the days of Prohibition.

Here are some of its findings:

Sixty-one percent of adults in this country consider themselves drinkers.

Another interesting finding, given the numerous scientific studies that have linked excessive alcohol consumption to health problems: Nearly seventy-four percent of adults with graduate degrees are drinkers, compared to just forty-four percent of adults without high school diplomas.

Men are more likely to quaff than women. Sixty-eight percent of men called themselves drinkers, while fifty-five percent of women did so.

Whites are bigger tipplers compared to other demographic groups.

The study also found that those of us with bigger bank accounts tend to drink more. Only forty-five percent of adults in families with incomes below poverty level said they drink.

The number for families with incomes four or more times above poverty level? Seventy-three percent.

Ms. Nation … who gained notoriety in Kansas for helping ‘enforce’ early temperance laws in that state by walking into saloons with her ax and smashing liquor bottles… would appreciate at least one of the report’s highlights.

Nearly one quarter of the adults surveyed said they never touch the stuff.

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