Drunk driving statistics describe both fatal crashes and much broader self-reported behavior. The figures below keep those measures separate, identifying the period, population, geography and definition behind each result.
Key Drunk Driving Statistics
These highlights span national outcomes, behavior, affected people and the limits of the available measures:
- 13,524 people were killed in U.S. motor-vehicle crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver in 2022.
- Alcohol-impaired-driving deaths represented 32% of all U.S. traffic fatalities in 2022.
- NHTSA recorded 12,429 people killed in U.S. alcohol-impaired-driving crashes in 2023.
- Alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities decreased 7.6% in the United States from 2022 to 2023.
- The CDC estimated $143 billion in 2022 U.S. costs from crash deaths involving alcohol-impaired drivers.
- California recorded 1,479 alcohol-impaired fatalities among 4,428 traffic fatalities in 2022.
- Illinois and Maryland each recorded alcohol-impaired fatalities equal to 37% of traffic fatalities in 2022.
- Alcohol-impaired drivers themselves accounted for 59% of people killed in qualifying U.S. crashes in 2022.
- 283 U.S. children ages 0–14 were killed in crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver in 2022.
- At seven U.S. trauma centers, 22% of 4,243 seriously injured crash drivers tested positive for alcohol from September 2019 through July 2021.
- An estimated 15.5 million U.S. residents age 16 or older drove under the influence of alcohol in the past year in 2023.
- The 2023 NSDUH estimate represented 5.9% of U.S. residents age 16 or older surveyed.
- About 125 million annual alcohol-impaired-driving episodes were estimated from 2020 U.S. adult self-reports.
- Men reported a 2.8% recent alcohol-impaired-driving prevalence versus 0.8% for women in 2012.
- Adults ages 21–24 had a 4.2% recent alcohol-impaired-driving prevalence in the United States in 2012.
- People who reported binge drinking accounted for 85% of alcohol-impaired-driving episodes in 2012 U.S. BRFSS data.
- Utah had a 0.05 g/dL BAC limit while 49 states and the District of Columbia had a 0.08 g/dL limit in 2022.
Contents
- Key Drunk Driving Statistics
- National Drunk Driving Fatalities and Trends
- State Alcohol-Impaired-Driving Fatality Data
- Who Is Affected by Alcohol-Impaired Crashes
- Self-Reported Drunk Driving Behavior
- Drunk Driving Statistics by Age, Sex and Timing
- Costs, BAC Limits and Evidence Limits
National Drunk Driving Fatalities and Trends
NHTSA defines an alcohol-impaired crash as a fatal crash involving at least one driver with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of at least 0.08 g/dL. This crash-level definition is narrower than survey questions about driving after drinking too much.
In 2022, 13,524 people were killed in U.S. motor-vehicle crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver, representing 32% of all U.S. traffic fatalities. NHTSA reported 13,617 such deaths in 2021, so the 2022 total was down 0.7% year over year. Traffic Safety Facts 2022 Data: Alcohol-Impaired Driving
The 2022 average was one alcohol-impaired-driving death every 39 minutes. That is an annual-average conversion, not a claim that deaths occurred at a uniform hourly rate.
NHTSA’s 2023 summary recorded 12,429 people killed in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes, a 7.6% decrease from 2022. The same source reports 13,384 deaths in 2021, up 14.2% from 11,718 in 2020. Traffic Safety Facts 2023 Data: Summary of Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes
The CDC estimated about $143 billion in 2022 costs from crash deaths involving alcohol-impaired drivers, expressed in 2021 U.S. dollars. The estimate includes medical costs and the estimated value of lives lost; it is not a direct tally of every social or legal cost. Impaired Driving Facts
State Alcohol-Impaired-Driving Fatality Data
The 2022 state table reports total traffic fatalities alongside alcohol-impaired fatalities. Percentages below are the share of each state’s traffic fatalities classified as alcohol-impaired, using the BAC threshold in the NHTSA table.
| State | Total traffic fatalities | Alcohol-impaired fatalities | Share in 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 988 | 281 | 28% |
| Alaska | 82 | 20 | 24% |
| Arizona | 1,302 | 450 | 35% |
| California | 4,428 | 1,479 | 33% |
| Colorado | 764 | 260 | 34% |
| Connecticut | 359 | 127 | 35% |
| Florida | 3,530 | 940 | 27% |
| Illinois | 1,268 | 471 | 37% |
| Maryland | 564 | 207 | 37% |
| Texas | 4,481 | 1,493 | 33% |
| Utah | 320 | 55 | 17% |
Source: Traffic Safety Facts 2022 Data: State Alcohol-Impaired-Driving Estimates. Texas’s total and alcohol-impaired count are reported as NHTSA estimates in the table, and state estimates may include imputed BAC values where tests were unavailable.
These are comparable fatal-crash measures for 2022, not rankings of general driving behavior. A state’s total fatality count and its alcohol-impaired share answer different questions: scale and composition, respectively.
Who Is Affected by Alcohol-Impaired Crashes
The person killed is not necessarily the impaired driver. In 2022, alcohol-impaired drivers themselves accounted for 59% of people killed in alcohol-impaired-driver crashes, while the remaining 40% comprised impaired-driver passengers, occupants of other vehicles and nonoccupants such as pedestrians. Impaired Driving Facts
Children are included in the broader road-user impact. In 2022, 283 children ages 0–14 were killed in crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver, equal to 25% of all traffic-related deaths among U.S. children ages 0–14; involvement does not establish that a child was in the impaired driver’s vehicle. Impaired Driving Facts
A separate trauma-center study shows why positive tests should not be confused with national fatal-crash statistics. Among 4,243 seriously injured crash drivers at seven U.S. trauma centers from September 2019 through July 2021, 54% tested positive for alcohol and/or drugs.
The study found 22% positive for alcohol, 25% positive for cannabis, 9% for opioids, 10% for stimulants and 8% for sedatives. These are toxicology results in a selected seriously injured-driver sample; a positive test does not prove impairment caused the crash, and the figures are not national prevalence estimates. Impaired Driving Facts
Self-Reported Drunk Driving Behavior
Survey measures capture behavior that may never become an arrest or crash. In 2023, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that 15.5 million U.S. residents age 16 or older, or 5.9% of respondents, drove under the influence of alcohol in the past year.
For comparison, the same 2023 survey estimated 12.1 million residents drove under the influence of cannabis and 2.2 million drove under the influence of illicit drugs other than cannabis. Those figures are related self-reported measures, not alcohol-specific crash counts. Impaired Driving Facts
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System used a different question. In 2020, 1.5% of U.S. adults reported driving after having too much to drink in the previous 30 days, corresponding to an estimated 125 million annual episodes.
That annualized figure counts episodes, not unique drivers, and is derived from preceding-30-day self-reports. It therefore cannot be compared as if it were the same measure as NHTSA’s fatal-crash definition. Impaired Driving Facts
Older BRFSS data provide more detail about repeated behavior. In 2012, 4.2 million U.S. adults reported at least one alcohol-impaired-driving episode in the preceding 30 days, producing an estimated 120,840,680 annual episodes and a national rate of 505 episodes per 1,000 population.
Among respondents who reported impaired driving, 58% reported one episode and 23% reported two episodes in the preceding 30 days. Separately, 0.8% of respondents reported driving while impaired at least daily. Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2012
Binge drinking was strongly concentrated within the 2012 episode data: people who reported binge drinking accounted for 85% of alcohol-impaired-driving episodes, while the 4% of adults who reported binge drinking at least four times per month accounted for 61% of episodes. These are associations in self-reported data, not causal estimates. Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2012
Drunk Driving Statistics by Age, Sex and Timing
The 2012 BRFSS results show differences across demographic groups, but they measure reported episodes rather than fatality risk.
| Group | Recent prevalence | Annual episode rate |
|---|---|---|
| All adults | 1.8% | 505 per 1,000 |
| Men | 2.8% | 828 per 1,000 |
| Women | 0.8% | 201 per 1,000 |
| Ages 18–20 | 1.4% | 431 per 1,000 |
| Ages 21–24 | 4.2% | 1,004 per 1,000 |
| Ages 25–34 | 3.0% | 794 per 1,000 |
The annual episode rate can exceed 1,000 because people may report multiple episodes. The 2012 U.S. rate of 505 per 1,000 had a 95% confidence interval of 461–550; the male rate of 828 had an interval of 741–914, and the female rate of 201 had an interval of 173–229. Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2012
Across states, the 2012 annual episode-rate range was 217 to 995 per 1,000 population, while the Midwest Census region had the highest regional rate at 573 per 1,000. The source cautions that weighting changes limit direct comparisons with earlier years.
Seat-belt behavior also showed an observed association in the 2012 survey: adults who wore a seat belt less than always had a rate of 1,321 annual episodes per 1,000, compared with 398 per 1,000 among adults who always wore a seat belt. This does not establish causation. Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2012
Drunk Driving Costs, BAC Limits and Evidence Limits
Legal thresholds and measured outcomes should be kept distinct. In 2022, 49 states and the District of Columbia had a 0.08 g/dL BAC limit, while Utah had a 0.05 g/dL limit; this is a legal-limit comparison, not a measured estimate of crash effects. Impaired Driving Facts
The available statistics use several designs: fatal-crash records, state estimates, self-reported surveys, annualized episode calculations and trauma-center toxicology. Each answers a different question about scale, exposure or outcome.
The key cautions are practical. NHTSA’s threshold applies to at least one driver in a fatal crash; NSDUH covers past-year self-reports among residents age 16 and older; BRFSS annualizes 30-day reports and counts episodes; and trauma-center positive tests do not establish impairment causation.
For cost interpretation, the CDC’s $143 billion estimate is in 2021 U.S. dollars and includes medical costs plus the estimated value of lives lost. It should not be presented as a precise total for every economic consequence of alcohol-impaired driving. Impaired Driving Facts