In 2023, more than 700,000 people were arrested in the United States for driving under the influence. Even though this seems high, we know it only represents the people who were caught — the “tip of the iceberg.”
A question people often ask is how much of the “iceberg” are we seeing. More specifically, how many people, in total, drive under the influence in the United States?
We have an answer to that question.
According to a national survey that same year, about 15.6 million Americans admitted they drove under the influence at least once in the past 12 months. If one were to use this number as a benchmark for the population of DWI offenders, that means only about 5% were arrested by law enforcement…