In 2017, approximately 4% of the American adolescent population aged from 12 to 17 suffered from a substance use disorder; this amounts to 992,000 teens or 1 in 25 people in this age group.
About 443,000 adolescents aged from 12 to 17 had an alcohol use disorder in 2017 or 1.8% of adolescents.
An estimated population of 741,000 adolescents suffered from an illicit drug use disorder in 2017, or about 3% of this population.
Young Adults Aged 18-25:
About 5.1 million young adults who are aged from 18 to 25 struggles with a substance use disorder in 2017, which equates to 14.8% of this population and about 1 in 7 people.
About 3.4 million young adults who are aged 18 to 25 had an alcohol use disorder in 2017 or about 10% of young adults.
About 2.5 million young adults had an illicit drug use disorder in 2017 or about 7.3% of this population.
Heroin abuse amongst young adults between 18 and 25 years old doubled in the past decade.
Over the age of 26:
Approximately 13.6 million adults age 26 or older suffered from a substance use disorder in 2017, or 6.4% of this age group.
About 10.6 million adults age 26 and older had an alcohol use disorder in 2017 or about 5% of this age group.
About 4.3 million adults age 26 or older had an illicit drug use disorder in 2017 or 2% of this age group.
The Elderly individuals:
More than 1 million elderly adults who are age 65 or older had a substance use disorder in 2017.
That same year in 2017, about 978,000 people in this age group had an alcohol use disorder and about 93,000 had an illicit drug use disorder.
Two-thirds of the senior citizens over the age of 65 who struggle with alcohol use disorders developed the disorder before age 65.
Between 21% and 66% of elderly individuals struggling with a substance use disorder also suffer from a co-occurring mental health disorder.
Gender (Men vs. women):
In the year 2017, about 9.4% of men and 5.2% of women from age 12 and older had a substance use disorder.
Men may be more likely to abuse illicit drugs than women, but women may be just as prone to addiction as men when they do abuse them.
Ethnicity Or Race:
American Indians and Alaska Natives who are age 12 and older had the highest rate of substance abuse and dependence in 2017, at 12.8%.
Whites had a 7.7% rate of substance abuse in 2017.
About 6.8% percent of African Americans struggled with substance use disorders, while the percentage of Hispanics or Latinos who suffered from substance use disorders was 6.6%.
Approximately 4.6% percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders suffered from substance use disorders.
Asian Americans had the lowest rate of substance use disorders at 3.8%.
Criminal Justice/Employment Status:
Almost twice as many people who are unemployed struggle with addiction as those who are full-time workers, CNN Money reports around 17% of the unemployed and 9% of the employed population struggled with a substance use disorder.
Of the 2.3 million people in American prisons and jails, more than 65% meet the criteria for addiction.
Around 75% of individuals in a state prison or local jail who suffer from a mental illness also struggle with substance abuse, and the opposite is also true.