The 25 Drunkest Cities In America

Rob Fox12 years ago

The Daily Beast conducted a study on the heaviest drinking cities in America, and the results are pretty interesting. But first, their methodology.

To figure out which cities imbibe the most throughout the year, The Daily Beast first reached out to market researcher Experian Marketing Services for recent data on the average number of alcoholic drinks per month per adult, in each metro area. As well, we pulled data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the percentage of residents who are binge drinkers and heavy drinkers. For the final ranking, the average drinks per month rank was weighted 50 percent; the binge-drinking and the heavy-drinking population for each metro area each got a 25 percent weighting.

With that in mind, these are your 25 drunkest American cities:

25. Burlington, VT
24. Cleveland, OH
23. St. Louis, MO
22. Buffalo, NY
21. Las Vegas, NV
20. Fargo, ND
19. Philadelphia, PA
18. San Francisco, CA
17. Reno, NV
16. Baton Rouge, LA
15. Denver, CO
14. Springfield, MA
13. Baltimore, MD
12. Omaha, NE
11. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
10. Providence, RI
9. Washington, D.C.
8. Chicago, IL
7. New Orleans, LA
6. Hartford-New Haven, CT
5. Austin, TX
4. Charleston, SC
3. Milwaukee, WI
2. Norfolk, VA
1. Boston, MA

It’s an interesting list, that at first glance seems somewhat eclectic. There are a lot of major metropolitan areas, though both New York and Los Angeles failed to make the cut. There are also several major college towns, such as Austin and Baton Rouge. Naturally the perpetual shitshow cities Las Vegas and New Orleans made the list, and the major brewing cities, St. Louis and Milwaukee, did as well. Of course Washington D.C. made the list, because something something fiscal cliff blah blah TOPICAL JOKE I READ THE NEWS LOLOLOLOLOL (*runs through office shaking penis at everyone less informed than me*).

Upon closer inspection, however, there is one prevailing theme with this list: (at least) 17 of these cities can be considered “cold weather” cities. Not only that, but most of the warm weather cities on this list (New Orleans, Las Vegas, Austin) have significant drinking reputations. Meanwhile places like Houston, Dallas, Miami, Phoenix, LA, San Diego, and pretty much every other major warm weather city are nowhere to be found. I have no idea how to explain Charleston other than it must be one of the most low-key shitshows in America.

So why are there so many cold weather cities on this list? Because winter blows. Winter blows SO hard. Phoenix has Arizona State within its metro area and still got out drank by Fargo, North Dakota and Burlington, Vermont. When the icy grip of the season takes hold all you can do is guzzle booze until you forget that Old Man Winter’s cold, bony, roving hands are going to be touching you inappropriately until at least March. Considering all that, how did Detroit not make this list? That city gets more depressing by the day.

[via The Daily Beast]

Image via AllThingsNext.com

h/t to @Small_Gov_Guy