How many people are in recovery? That’s a tough question to answer with certainty.
For starters, there’s no agreed-on definition of recovery. Researchers are working on that. At the same time, some in the recovery community say, “you’re in recovery when you say you are.” We also have no reliable record-keeping system in the U.S. for the diagnosis of substance use disorder or recovery, so even if we did agree on what we’re counting, we don’t have a way to document it.
So how do we know how many people are in recovery?
Leading recovery advocacy organizations like Faces and Voices of Recovery and the Recovery Advocacy Project say that about 23 million people are in recovery from substance use disorder in the United States today. That estimate is based on the National Recovery Survey conducted in 2017 by researchers affiliated with the Recovery Research Institute. They surveyed a representative sample of American adults and found that 9.1% “used to have a problem with alcohol or drugs but no longer do.” (That figure is based on the adult population in 2018. We can update it for 2020 - take 9.1% of 253.8 million, the US Census Bureau’s estimate of the number of adults in 2020, and you get 23.5 million.).
The 23 million figure represents people in recovery from mild, moderate, or severe substance use disorder, which means people who may have a few consequences from their drinking as well as people who live in active addiction. Those with mild substance use disorders – the ones with few consequences - that resolved generally don’t consider themselves as being in recovery. The National Recovery Survey found that slightly fewer than half (46 percent) who self-identified as having resolved a significant alcohol or drug problem, or 10.7 million, identified themselves as being in recovery.
So, how many people are in recovery in the US? The truth is, we really don’t know. But the numbers are large, and that’s what really counts. Millions of Americans are in recovery today, and that’s something to celebrate during National Drugs and Alcohol Facts Week
