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Men BAC Chart

Women BAC Chart

Wondering how you can determine your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC)? This page contains an explanation of BAC and a number of tools you can use to estimate your BAC. A person's actual BAC is dependent on many complex factors, including their physical condition (body composition, health etc.) and what they have recently ingested (including food, water, medications and other drugs). Thus, the results generated by the tables and computer programs on this page are estimates of an average healthy person's BAC. The BAC estimates should not be used to infer anyone's fitness to work, drive or perform any other task or duty.

Standard Drinks | Impairment Tables | BAC Educator

What is BAC?

BAC (Blood Alcohol Content), sometimes referred to as BAL (Blood Alcohol Level) is the percent of alcohol present in the blood. There are various means of determining BAC. An absolute level can be obtained only by drawing a sample of blood. The most reliable estimate can be obtained via very accurate breathalyzers that take a sample of alveolar (deep lung) air. These are often used by police departments, and are considered legal evidence in a court of law. Handheld breathalyzers are less accurate, and while they are not considered legal evidence of intoxication, they can be used by police to determine probable cause to obtain a BAC that is considered legal evidence in a court of law.

Standard Drinks: How Much Alcohol Do You Actually DrinkThe first step in using charts and computer programs to estimate your BAC is to determine the amount of alcohol you consume. The key is to think in terms of “standard drinks.” A standard drink is 0.5 oz. of alcohol. To calculate standard drinks you need to know the beverage size in ounces and the percent alcohol content. Some alcoholic beverages are labeled by percent alcohol by volume (i.e., 5%), but most beers are not. Use the information below to estimate alcohol content:

To calculate the number of standard drinks: Multiply the serving size (in ounces) by the percent alcohol by volume to get the total ounces of alcohol. Then divide by 0.5 (the size of one standard drink). Example: For a 12 oz. beer with 5% alcohol: Virginia Tech students can receive a standard drinks chart in the mail by e-mailing their address: Please send me a standard drinks chart.		Click for an enlarged version
The percent alcohol content of beverages varies across both beverage type and brand. Use the following general guidelines to determine the relative alcohol content of a specific alcoholic beverages:		Click for an enlarged version
Beer:	The darker the beer the more alcohol. The more bitter the beer the more alcohol.
Wine:	With the exception of Chardonnay, red wines have more alcohol than whites. The sweeter the wine the lower the alcohol content.
Liquor:	The darker the liquor the more alcohol. The sweeter the liquor the lower the alcohol content. With the exception of grain alcohol, clear liquors have about 40% alcohol.

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Impairment Tables (Adapted for Virginia law from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board BAC Tables)The results that are generated by the following tables are estimates of an average healthy person's BAC assuming you use standard drinks as your measure of number of drinks. The BAC estimates should not be used to infer anyone's fitness to work, drive or perform any other task or duty. They are not considered legal evidence in a court of law.

A person's actual BAC is dependent on many complex factors, including their physical condition (body composition, health etc.) and what they have recently ingested (including food, water, medications and other drugs). See Factors that Effect Intoxication to learn more about factors that effect intoxication.

Blood Alcohol Impairment Table for Women. Read the chart carefully and be sure to use the standard drinks (approx. 1.25 oz. of 80 proof liquor, 12 oz. of beer, or 4 oz. of table wine) Also, subtract .01 from your BAC estimate for each 40 minutes of drinking.

Blood Alcohol Impairment Table for Men. Read the chart carefully and be sure to use the standard drinks (approx. 1.25 oz. of 80 proof liquor, 12 oz. of beer, or 4 oz. of table wine) Also, subtract .01 from your BAC estimate for each 40 minutes of drinking.

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Blood Alcohol EducatorOnline Version: You can access the online version at: The Century Council. You will need to download and install the Shockwave Plug-in to run the program on the web.

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