Despite a slight downward trend in certain alcohol use metrics, the culture and major associated risks of excessive alcohol consumption on U.S. college campuses have shown remarkable persistence between 2004 and 2025. While rates of binge drinking have seen a modest decrease over the past few decades, the core issues of alcohol-related deaths, assaults, and sexual violence remain alarmingly consistent, suggesting that little has fundamentally changed regarding the severity of alcohol-related harms.
The perception of heavy drinking as a "rite of passage" or a social lubricant for making friends continues to influence students' behavior upon entering college, making interventions challenging.
College Drinking - Then and Now
The prevalence of alcohol use among college students has remained relatively stable, though some high-risk behaviors show modest declines over the long term:
Binge Drinking: Rates of self-reported binge drinking (consuming 4/5 or more drinks in a short period) by college students have decreased slightly from earlier peaks. One study noted that the rate dropped from 40% in 1993 to 35% in 2014, and one more recent data point for 2023 was reported as 21.9%, the lowest since 1980. However, high-intensity drinking (10 or more drinks on one occasion) was reported as 14% in 2005 and 20% in 2014, showing a potential increase in extreme consumption among a subset of students.
Alcohol Use: The annual prevalence of alcohol use among college students has seen a long-term decrease from 90.5% in 1980 to 76.7% in 2020, but the rate remained consistent between 2015 and 2020.
Social Norms: Despite prevention efforts, the social expectation that heavy drinking is a central part of the university experience and key to social integration remains a significant factor for many incoming students.
Specific, consistently tracked figures for all U.S. colleges for every year between 2004 and 2025 are not readily available in a single dataset. Instead, researchers use national surveys and statistical models to produce annualized estimates for the 18–24-year-old college population. The figures below, provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and related research, reflect the estimated annual burden, and have remained largely unchanged in their magnitude from the early 2000s to the present