File photo

File photo

Study shows Washingtonians exceeded ‘heavy drinking’ threshold in 2020

The survey suggests Washingtonians drank more than 17 alcoholic beverages a week on average.

Washingtonians drank an average of 873 standard sized alcoholic drinks per capita in 2020, according to a survey from American Addiction Centers.

The survey questioned over 3,500 different participants across all 50 states to get a better idea about average alcohol consumption through a difficult pandemic year.

The study found that Washingtonians were on par with the national average of about 17 weekly drinks per person.

This figure exceeds the Centers for Disease Control’s defined threshold for “heavy drinking,” which is more than 14 standard sized drinks a week for men, and more than seven standard sized drinks a week for women.

A standard sized drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer (about 5% alcohol), 5 ounces of wine (12% alcohol) or 1.5 ounces of liquor (40% alcohol).

The survey suggests that Alaskans consumed the most alcoholic drinks on average through the lockdown with an average 27 standard drinks per week. Comparatively, residents in Hawaii and New Hampshire had just 10 drinks per week – the lowest figure across the U.S.

The survey also suggested that the average drinker had spent roughly 112 hours hungover during the pandemic.




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