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During the late nineties a nation wide survey in the United States has put the number of alcoholics in the country to be around 12.5 million. At present a more conservative estimate puts that number to be around 22 million. Alcoholism is far more predominant in the American society than any other kind of disease. Still it is the least talked about or researched. Some people even refuse to put it under the category of a disease .they prefer to put it under the banner of behavioral disorder. But the fact is alcoholism is a more serious phenomenon than anyone deems it to be.
There are more percentage of people under its clutches than in any of the other more prioritized disease like cancer aids etc. if we make a rough survey you would find that around three fourth of the population drinks .out of this about 6% of the people have problems of alcoholism. Also among people who work in more stress full work environments the percentage of people suffering from problems of alcoholism is even more. However there are several other factors that define the probability of being an alcoholic which include geographic and ethnic factors. For example the probability of alcoholism is more among Eskimos and Native Americans than in other ethnic groups. Similarly people from the lower strata of society are more prone to alcoholism than among the elite.
Geographical location also becomes a major factor in determining alcoholism rates. For example alcoholism rates are far higher in countries like Russia and Netherlands where chilly winter makes alcohol consumption an absolute must.
Also pin pointing people of specific countries with specific alcoholism patterns is very difficult. For example for a country like china with vast geographic and ethnic variations you can never make a drinking habit pattern that is synonymous to the whole of the country. However it can be inferred that Chinese have a far lesser percentage of people engaged in alcoholism as considered to its western counter parts. However with increase in industrialization and the open up of the Chinese markets to the western world alcoholism grew at a steady pace in china .also the gradual decay of the traditional oriental way of life and the western influence has been the other leading factors.
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