Alcohol-Related Deaths in Wisconsin Decline, But Still Higher Compared to a Decade Ago

Thursday, October 2nd, 2025 -- 12:00 PM

(Shawn Johnson, Wisconsin Public Radio) Alcohol-related deaths have declined in Wisconsin since their peak in the COVID-19 pandemic, but they’re still dramatically higher than they were just 15 years ago, according to a new report.

According to Shawn Johnson with the Wisconsin Public Radio, the findings from the Wisconsin Policy Forum showed Wisconsin’s alcohol-related death rate was above the national rate.

Fifteen years ago, the state and national rates were nearly identical. The Policy Forum analyzed federal data dating back to 1999. It counted only deaths directly attributable to excessive drinking, such as alcohol poisoning and certain liver, neurological, digestive or other diseases.

It did not include other deaths where alcohol may have been a contributing factor, such as auto accidents, cancers, suicide or violence. Those deaths hit their peak in 2021, at an age-adjusted rate of 16.7 per 100,000 residents, according to the report.

They dropped to 15 per 100,000 in 2024, which is close to the same as before the pandemic. But it’s still more than twice as high as in 2010, when the rate was 7.3 out of 100,000 residents.

That year, the national rate was almost identical. “We were right on par with the nation in this category,” said Mark Sommerhauser, researcher and communications director for the Wisconsin Policy Forum. “So it does raise the question: What has happened?”

Sommerhauser said a higher prevalence of conditions such as obesity and diabetes in the general population may have made more people vulnerable to the dangers of excessive drinking, though that wouldn’t explain Wisconsin’s rate being higher than the national level.

The Policy Forum found larger regional trends at play. For example, neighboring Iowa and Minnesota had higher alcohol-induced death rates than Wisconsin. One group in Wisconsin was a major outlier.

The Policy Forum found deaths among Black residents were considerably higher than for other groups, especially when compared to national trends. In Wisconsin, the age-adjusted alcohol-induced mortality rate for Black residents was 19.9 per 100,000 residents. Nationally, it was 8.5 per 100,000, or less than half Wisconsin’s rate.

“If you look nationally, Black Americans are actually less likely to die of these causes than white Americans, or than Americans as a whole,” Sommerhauser said. “But in Wisconsin, that’s not true.”

The Policy Forum suggested lawmakers could consider reducing the hours when alcohol can be purchased or reducing the density of establishments that sell it, though it acknowledged those ideas would be “politically fraught” in Wisconsin.

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