The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence has come forth with a study comparing underage drinking in the United States with Europeans.

Key Question: Do young people in Europe drink less alcohol and experience fewer alcohol-related problems than young people in the United States?

Until recently there were no data or studies available with which to easily answer this question.  Fortunately, as a result of a study done by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) within the U.S. Department of Justice DOJ), Youth Drinking Rates and Problems:  A Comparison of European Countries and the United States, we now have the data.

Some of their results:

“A greater percentage of young people from nearly all European countries report drinking in the past 30 days;

“For a majority of the these European countries, a greater percentage of young people report having 5 or more drinks in a row; and

“A great majority of the European countries have higher intoxication rates among young people than the United States and less than a quarter had lower rates or equivalent rates to the United States.Read more…