Facts and figures

The bare facts

We know what can and needs to be done to help reduce the burden of psychoactive substance use. Therefore, WHO is committed to assisting countries in the development, organization, monitoring and evaluation of treatment and other services.

• The harmful use of alcohol results in 3.3 million deaths each year.
• On average every person in the world aged 15 years or older drinks 6.2 litres of pure alcohol per year.
• Less than half the population (38.3%) actually drinks alcohol, this means that those who do drink consume on average 17 litres of pure alcohol annually.
• At least 15.3 million persons have drug use disorders.
• Injecting drug use reported in 148 countries, of which 120 report HIV infection among this population.

More information:

• - Alcohol
• - Other psychoactive substances