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According to a new study by the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 2.6 million deaths per year linked to alcohol consumption globally. The report, which was based on data from 2019, states that alcohol consumption accounts for 4.7% of all deaths worldwide.
The WHO’s global status report on alcohol and health and treatment of substance use disorders highlighted the devastating impact of substance use on individual health, increasing the risk of chronic diseases, mental health conditions, and millions of preventable deaths each year. This burden also affects families and communities by raising exposure to accidents, injuries, and violence.
The report noted that deaths associated with alcohol consumption were higher in Europe and Africa compared to Asia and the Americas. Out of the 2.6 million fatalities, 1.6 million were attributed to noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (474,000) and cancer (401,000). Additionally, 724,000 deaths were due to injuries such as those from traffic accidents (355,000), self-harm (83,000), and violence (153,589). Alcohol consumption also played a role in risky behavior leading to 284,000 deaths related to communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS (73
