Definitions of "Heavy" and "Binge" Alcohol Use According to SAMHSA:

"An estimated 16.7 million people aged 12 or older in 2017 who were heavy alcohol users in the past month (Figure 5), which represents 6.1 percent of the population aged 12 or older (Figure 7). In 2017, 174,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 were current heavy drinkers. Stated another way, about 1 out of 140 adolescents (0.7 percent) engaged in binge drinking on 5 or more days in the past 30 days. About 1 out of every 10 young adults aged 18 to 25 (9.6 percent) were current heavy alcohol drinkers.

"In 2017, about 1 in 4 people aged 12 or older (24.5 percent) were current binge alcohol users (Figure 7). This percentage corresponds to about 66.6 million binge drinkers who were aged 12 or older (Figure 5). About 1.3 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 were past month binge drinkers, which corresponds to 5.3 percent of adolescents. Thus, about 1 in 20 adolescents aged 12 to 17 in 2017 were current binge drinkers. An estimated 36.9 percent of young adults aged 18 to 25 were binge drinkers in the past month, which corresponds to about 12.7 million young adults.

"• Among current drinkers, 39.6% reported binge drinking in the past month, with the Marine Corps reporting the highest prevalence of binge drinking (56.7%), and the Air Force reporting the lowest prevalence (28.1%).
"• When examining levels of drinking across all services, 9.9% were classified abstainers, 5.7% were former drinkers, and 84.5% were current drinkers; 58.6% of all personnel were classified as infrequent/light drinkers, 17.5% were moderate drinkers, and 8.4% were classified as heavy drinkers.