Alcohol consumption kills 3.3 million people a year, WHO calculates

Alcohol was responsible for 3.3 million deaths in 2012, equivalent to 5.9% of all deaths in the world, a report by the World Health Organization has estimated.1

About a third (33.4%) of these alcohol related deaths resulted from cardiovascular diseases and diabetes; 17.1% were caused by injuries; 16.2% were due to gastrointestinal diseases, particularly liver cirrhosis; and 12.5% were due to cancers.

The number of deaths has increased since WHO’s previous global report on alcohol, published in 2011, which highlighted 2.5 million deaths each year due to alcohol, or almost 4% of all deaths worldwide.2

The latest report also …