Social and economic costs of alcohol in the NT
The costs of alcohol to the ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlogn community from alcohol misuse are substantial, nowhere more so than in the Northern Territory, where per capital alcohol sales are well above the ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlogn average.
Researchers at SACES in collaboration with the Menzies School of Health Research recently completed a study into the , updating work last done in 2009.
We estimate that the total social cost of alcohol in 2015/16 was $1,386.8 million, with tangible costs of $701.3 million, and intangible costs of $685.5 million (excluding the lost quality of life due to addiction amongst dependent drinkers and the family members of dependent drinkers – the magnitudes of which are less certain but likely to be very substantial).
At an individual level the estimated total social cost of alcohol in 2015/16 was $3,832.19 in tangible costs per adult resident of the Northern Territory, with intangible costs imposing a further cost of $3,745.75 per adult. This equates to a total estimated impact of $7,577.94 per adult (excluding the costs of alcohol dependence to the dependent drinker and their family).
The main drivers of the costs of alcohol misuse are:
- Total tangible healthcare costs of $100.2 million;
- Total tangible road crash costs of $57.6 million (excluding mortality, hospital separations and intangible costs);
- Total quantifiable costs of crime of $272.6 million;
- Total child protection costs of $170.9 million; and
- Intangible costs of premature death of $652.5 million.
These costs arise from substantial tangible impacts of alcohol in the Northern Territory, including:
- An estimated 141.9 net premature deaths caused by alcohol.
- 47 per cent of violent crime in the Northern Territory (and 39 per cent of non-violent crime) was attributable to alcohol misuse.
- Alcohol is estimated to be responsible for between 4.5 per cent and 11 per cent of cases of child abuse and neglect in the Northern Territory, creating costs of $8 million to $20 million in increased child protection spending by the NT Government, and imposing lifetime costs of $62 million to $384 million on the victims of child abuse and neglect.
- Almost fifty per cent of road crash deaths, and twenty per cent of serious injury crashes were attributable to alcohol.