College Drinking Statistics

College drinking statistics have rarely wavered since it became apparent that most college kids were drinking. The college drinking statistics may seem high to you if you have never seen them before but the truth is, as most of us know, a majority of students drink in college.

Drinking is a continued problem for most colleges. Nearly 73% of the students drink every now and then. That is nothing in comparison to the college drinking statistics that say 1 in 4 aged (18-34) students binge drink which means they drink four or more alcoholic beverages in a few hours.

Frightening Freshman

The average male freshman consumes 7.39 drinks-which can mean a bottle of beer, glass of wine, shot or mixed drink-per week. The average female freshman has an average of about 3.86 drinks per week. This is better in comparison to some of the binge drinking statistics in the past for college students.

College drinking statistics affecting grades

31% of college students miss a class due to drinking and 22% have failed an exam or essay due to drinking. Around 159,000 of the nation’s college freshmen will drop out of school because of drinking or using drugs.

Sex

Also when it comes to college drinking statistics, alcohol and sex go hand in hand. College drinking has been involved in 90% of all campus rapes, where either the rapist or the victim was intoxicated. It is heavily involved with one night stands and most hook ups on college campuses. Around 70% of college kids say that they had unplanned sex when they otherwise wouldn’t have because they were drinking. While under the influence of alcohol or drugs 20% of college students didn’t take any precautions even though they may do so normally while sober.

Underage Drinking

College drinking statistics don’t only apply to those of drinking age either. College begins when young adults are 18. This gives way to the college drinking statistic that 63% or 2 out of 3; the underage college students reported drinking in the past 30 days and 42% had five or more drinks.

Part of the problem with college drinking and the reason college drinking statistics are so high is because of the availability of alcohol to those of age and underage. Also many places market their drinks to the college audience, making it cheaper and easier to get it. Another part of the problem is that college students underestimate their drinking. It’s easy to not think you are drinking a lot when everyone around is drinking the same amount. It’s automatically assumed that drinking and college go hand in hand. College drinking statistics also are saying that college student’s supersize their alcoholic beverages meaning that the volume of the alcohol is increased with the cup size. The college student’s idea of one drink is much larger than it actually is. For example if a college student drinks out of a keg they may consider one cup, one drink, regardless of its size.

Either way college drinking statistics are not slowly declining but are rather staying the same or climbing upwards and this has a significant impact not only on the students health but also their education.

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