Young, drunk, dead: How the silly season kills!

In 2020, according to the annual, independent Global Drug Survey, Australians were drunk more often than any other country in the survey. Melissa Cunningham reported in The Age (How to cure a hangover!, 11 DEC 2021) that  Australians admitted being drunk 27 times a year, compared with the global average of 15.

Naturally, a lot of this drinking takes place during the Christmas holidays or the Silly Season. Unfortunately, it appears to be the SILLY SEASON all year round in Australia.

Data from 32,022 people from 22 countries were used in the preparation of this Global Drug Survey

For binge drinking stats

See Dangerous Maths: Young, drunk, dead.

LINK: National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre data

1. UK 15-34 years for 2011. Source
2. Australia  15-24 years average  Source 
3. CANADA Under 18 years of age. 1996 It is believed that as many as 83 percent of teenagers in Canada consume alcohol. Back in 1996, underage drinking was responsible for 3,500 deaths and 2,000,000 injuries. A 2002 survey found that 20 percent of eight graders had consumed alcohol within the previous month. Source
4. USA.  4,358 people under age 21 die each year from alcohol-related car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning, and other injuries such as falls, burns, and drowning. Source

Dangerous Maths 1:Young drunk dead

Statistics for alcohol consumption are tricky. Binge drinking gets confused with heavy drinking. If you want to stay young go to the UK. They think anyone under 35 is a youth! Some stats separate Male and Female drinking habits. Some don’t. And legal drinking ages vary. Canada is one crazy place. It has different legal drinking ages in different parts of the country.

Legal Drinking Age:

The Maths

What we are working on here is reading maths data. No lectures. The numbers speak for themselves.

Graph source here

The Challenge

Find the following information from data below. Percentage of Year 12 students or 18 year olds who binge drink in each country below.

1. Australia

Graph Source here.

2. Canada

Graph Source here.

3. UK

Graph Source here

4. USA

Graph source here

Answers- Young drunk dead

Use these % to create a bar graph comparing countries. (Answer below)

Graph drawn using Create a Graph website

Alcohol related death stats over lap other stats including death involving cars, motorcycles, bicycles, skateboards, jet skis, quad bikes, drowning, diving, stairs, supermarket trolleys and even high heels.

photo source Daily Mail

Alcohol Related Youth Death Statistics

UK¹: 314

Australia2: 260

Canada³: 3,500

USA⁴: 4,358

1. 15-34 years for 2011. Source

2. 15-24 years average 1990-2002 Source

3. Under 18 years of age. 1996 It is believed that as many as 83 percent of teenagers in Canada consume alcohol. Back in 1996, underage drinking was responsible for 3,500 deaths and 2,000,000 injuries. A 2002 survey found that 20 percent of eight graders had consumed alcohol within the previous month. Source

4. 4,358 people under age 21 die each year from alcohol-related car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning, and other injuries such as falls, burns, and drowning. Source

These countries have different populations (See post below). USA population is 15 times Australia’s. 260 x 15 = 3,900. So the Aussie and US stats are in the same ball park even though the stats have been collected for different age ranges. But look at Canada. The USA population is about 9 times Canada’s. 4,358 ÷ 9 = 484 deaths. This  death statistic for Canada is 10 times larger than the USA statistic per head of population. Meanwhile, the population of Canada is 1 1/2 or 1.5 times Australia’s. 260 x 1.5 = 390. Once again, the Canadian statistic is out by a factor of 10. What’s going on here?

The Bar Where You’re Too Afraid to Get Smashed

Mathspig is a party pig. But why does anyone drink themselves senseless? Many reasons, but one is they’re bored. Now here is a bar in Mathspig’s home town, Melbourne, where you better stay sober. Break out of prison in Trapt Bar. You’re in prison, you’re innocent, and no one believes you. You plot an escape with the other prisoners–because unless you break free soon, you’ll all face an unspeakable death (this prison is off the charts). At Trapt Bar and Escape Rooms, you and your teammates have 45 minutes to find clues, solve puzzles and escape before…well…let’s spare you the gruesome details.