Impaired Driving: Get the Facts

About 1 million arrests are made in the United States each year for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.13,14 However, results from national self-report surveys show that these arrests represent only a small portion of the times impaired drivers are on the road.

Results from the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) indicated that the estimated number of U.S. residents ages 16 years and older who drove under the influence in the past year was:

Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System indicated that 1.2% of adults drove after having too much to drink in the past 30 days in 2020. This resulted in an estimated 127 million episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among US adults.16

Source: CDC. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 1993–2020. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/brfss.

Note: Annual estimated alcohol-impaired driving episodes were calculated using BRFSS respondents’ answers to this question: “During the past 30 days, how many times have you driven when you’ve had perhaps too much to drink?” Annual estimates per respondent were calculated by multiplying the reported episodes during the preceding 30 days by 12. These numbers were summed to obtain the annual national estimates. (See Alcohol-impaired driving among adults—USA, 2014–2018 for more information).