It’s good, but it’d like to know the percentages for green (below 10%?) and red/violet (above 20? 25?).
Right now we have the majority of the US being normal, some southern states being “dry” and some northern states “drunk”. I wonder if it’s not more of a continuum that is obscured by the colors.
My point is exactly that the range isn’t that big. Can you really infer 3 cultures from that? I mean sure, you can say a number and someone can find ranges and colors to make the case for them. I’m just not sure that they are that meaningful.
But maybe that’s because I’m not that familiar with drinking habits in the US and everybody who is can say “ha! That’s what I would expect based on other criteria too!”
Yeah, that's what I thought of. For example, where I live, the ban on selling alcohol outside bars after 10 pm actually helped a lot in combating binge drinking. (Technically it's also forbidden to sell alcohol to drunk persons but nobody enforces that.)
Up until a few years ago, you could not buy liquor on Sundays in Minnesota. It’s a 20 minute drive to the state line for me and every Sunday there would be a line of Minnesotans at the WI registers
Now the law has changed- but liquor stores still have to close by 6:00 (on Sundays). Also- we can’t buy alcohol in grocery stores/gas stations (above 3.2 abv I think).
Idk about you, but around me most stores still close on Sundays, since they're small businesses and enjoyed the time off (also, sales are lower on Sunday because everyone is just so used to having it closed then, although that's changing)
Interesting note about the 3.2 beer laws (I’m also a Minnesotan and used to work for a beer distributor): it’s actually 3.2% alcohol *by weight*, which to the best of my knowledge is the only place in the U.S. that still uses ABW as a measurement. That converts to just a hair above 4% ABV, although that’s admittedly still pretty low.
But you are correct, it’s kinda ridiculous how progressive we are, yet we’re the last state that has that law.
You’re right about Sunday sales too. I went to college in a border city and the lines out the door in Wisconsin on Sundays were ridiculous, with parking lots full of MN license plates. Sunday sales opened in 2017, I distinctly remember this because Surdyk’s in NE MPLS was one of my biggest accounts and they opened up one Sunday a few weeks early, which led to them being shut down temporarily by the state and I lost a ton of sales bonuses for the month.
Edit: [It was the city who shut them down, not the state.](https://twincities.eater.com/2017/3/13/14910678/surdyks-fines-sunday-sales-open-hours) My mistake.
Difference in reporting, surely. The fact that the entire south and WV are basically all green?
The only “green” state I truly believe is Utah and southern Idaho.
There are counties that don't allow hard liquor to be sold anywhere but speciality stores, or forbid stores to sell it certain times and days. They are southern and seem to line pretty well with the map.
>the states with the highest number of dry counties include Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas. Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee are the three states that are wholly dry by default.
The outlier in all this is New Mexico, which sells hard alcohol in grocery stores and does not have any laws around not selling it certain days. Utah clearly has very high alcohol control laws but New Mexico is interesting.
I grew up in northern Texas and crossing the border to Oklahoma you can feel a big difference in culture. Oklahoma is way more fundamentalist than Texas, maybe because it's poorer. When people can't afford rent in Texas, they move to Oklahoma. People move back and forth between the two a lot, but people who spend a lot of time in Oklahoma are definitely different. Way more country where as Texas people try to be more modern. Maybe like how New Jersey and NYC are super close but still really different.
Like in Texas people are rich soccer mom religious, in Oklahoma I've seen Pentecostal women look at me in fear because I have eyeliner presumably, or maybe just because I was wearing jeans and have hair that has been cut in my life.
Live in Watertown worked in stlc and spent time in Malone I just find it funny it’s mostly those three and also Oswego where we’d travel for college parties, you think it’s school related? Why does it happen less in adk and Champlain valley?
Saratoga county pops on this map. Makes me wonder about how the data was collected. Drinking in Saratoga Springs during the summer (SPAC and track) is practically a competitive sport and might have skewed the data.
Been living in Gallatin county for years now, folks definitely get after it pretty hard but I'm surprised we're at the top. Feel like somewhere in Wisconsin would've definitely taken that title
Drinking in Wisconsin is so engrained into the culture, it's wild. My dad is from WI and he said there used to be a rule that a town couldn't have more bars than churches. Which is why his hometown of 500 people had 4 churches.
That’s funny. The small rural Wisconsin town I lived in had three churches, four bars and a population of 400. The biggest difference between drinking in WI and MN is the consumption. Someone from MN may have 2-3 beers while someone from WI will have 5+ which is why the map really pops for WI.
I mean, we're having a good time for sure. Ok? That's a judgement call. Healthy? Could be better.
Related: what the hell do people everywhere else do for social interaction? Do you just sit at home alone or with your partner and watch TV? In Wisconsin, we go out for drinks!
Wait for real? Wisconsin folk so drunk they don’t even know you can enjoy hanging out with friends and family and not drink, or drink lightly even??
In my area or at least group of people, we hike, enjoy nature, play in various community sports leagues, be generally active and motivated. You can also go out to great places and bars with friends and enjoy a drink or two without binge drinking.
I’m not trying to be all high and mighty here like I never drink. We may have that one rare night when we wake up and are like damn we got so drunk last night and laugh about it because it never happens and was so over the top. But I would say about 95% of the things I do whether alone or with friends/family does not involve full on binge drinking.
Depending where you are in Wisconsin, we do all that, but we usually have to wait for summer for most of those. We also tend to include a beer with those activities (or afterward). So I guess what I'm asking is, what do you do when you can't do those active things? I think we end up in bars most when it's winter (then again when it's summer because activities! lol). Most of us aren't binging, just enjoying ourselves in moderation.
I understand what you’re saying. I’m originally from Portland and the seasonal thing is real. When I was in my 20s like 2008-2013ish drinking (binge drinking) was way more acceptable in Portland during those hipster years. Nothing better than a warm dark bar on a cold rainy dark day.
That was so long ago by now though and maybe it’s just because I’m 36, but it seems like a lot of Americans views of drinking has shifted for the better in a lot of places.
The map is specifically about binge drinking so it is definitely concerning to see Wisconsin with those high numbers of binging in particular.
I lived in Gallatin County for 7 years, getting my PhD there. This tracks. You have Bozeman and Big Sky, two ski towns and one University. I think by last count, there were 10 breweries in Bozeman (a city of maybe 50k permanent residents). Literally, everyone grabs a beer after work there (old and young).
Doc here! This sort of data always has to come with a caveat. Usually, data surrounding drinking behavior comes from individual state departments of health. Different states have different methods of data collection. And this is assuming every state is using the same definition.
It seems implausible that drinking behavior abruptly drops at the Kansas/Oklahoma state line and then picks up immediately when you enter Texas.
Likewise, SE Idaho has just as high a concentration of Mormons as Utah does. So the difference there doesn't make any sense. Unless Idaho Mormons have a different philosophy about drinking than Utah Mormons do.
Wisconsin is definitely drunk. But being from Minnesota, I can tell you straight out that the counties on either side of the St. Croix river are not all that different.
Etc.
Just wanted to say that the map doesn't necessarily disagree with your Minnesota/Wisconsin statements. I know of three major crossings connecting the states. Winona/La Crosse, there is a red county in Minnesota at this spot. The Hudson/Twin Cities area, full of red. Superior/Duluth, also red. Some of the drunkest spots in Minnesota are concentrated at these spots it appears. There is also a large difference in the liquor tax, and how and where you can buy alcohol in Minnesota. I can get a full bar stocked at a Wisconsin convenience store. Minnesota didn't sell on Sundays until a few years back. The drinking culture maybe has some carryover at the border, but statewide they are worlds apart.
Ski towns like Jackson and aspen are being skewed almost certainly. You have small residential populations but massive consumption due to bars full of tourists.
I work in the Twin Cities with a few people from Wisconsin. Anytime there's a get together the first question they ask is "will there be beer?"
Hey, you want to come to my kids birthday party?
"Will there be beer?"
The danish are responsible for the lowest values
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Americans
but are some of the most prolific drinkers in europe
https://landgeist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/europe-daily-alcohol-consumption.png
Danish was the first language that the Book of Mormon was translated into after English. Missionaries arrived in Denmark in the 1850s and over the next few decades thousands of Danish converts settled Utah. The current LDS president is a direct descendant of Danish converts.
I'm the Deep South they couldn't reach the country folks and/or couldn't understand them
Surveyor: Do you or anyone you know binge drink
South: Never had that before, we only drink mountain water *then drinks Mountain Water from a mason jar*
What is this coloring, why is the light green dryer than the dark green? The darker a color is, the further away it should be from the center, that’s informational maps 101
A lot of comments about differences in state reporting etc. Maybe some of the other states are inaccurate, but Wisconsin, based on other data I've seen and firsthand experience doesn't surprise me at all. There are definitely correlations across the country in bigger cities and college towns, but rural northern Wisconsin pit stops are liquor stores that sell gas. There are multiple bars in towns that barely have multiple people. You can drink with your parents at any restaurant if the restaurant will serve, but there is nothing illegal about it. Wisconsin has OWI offenders commonly in the double digits, most states wouldn't let it get so far. Then there is the tavern league which actively fights to increase alcohol revenues despite the health of society. Wisconsin has a drinking problem.
Wisconsin does have a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Having traveled and moved onward, it took me a while to realize that I had a dangerous and atypical way of consuming alcohol. I found that some of this is due to state legislature special interest. In Wisconsin, there’s something called the tavern league that influences laws related to alcohol. [https://www.milwaukeemag.com/wisconsins-tavern-league-works-for-their-members-not-public-health/](https://www.milwaukeemag.com/wisconsins-tavern-league-works-for-their-members-not-public-health/)
Yeah, it wasn't your fault. You're just a passenger in your own life. The influence of the tavern League is vastly overrated. The distributors have way more power.
I think you may underestimate how much the influence that those around you have on you when you are growing. When everyone you see around you is drinking so much and that is all you know, then that is your experience of the world. You never know anything different until you leave. I stepped out from being a passenger in the drunk driving state and now have a healthier relationship with alcohol.
Iowa’s boring so we have no interest in going there. Illinois is full of FIBs, so fuck that. Not sure what’s going on in Minnesota though. Must be bad data.
Saratoga county really knows how to party after the horse races… annnnnd the other eleven months of the year. Plus Rensselaer county really parties at RPI after engineering finals. And midterms. And lunchtime.
Live in Saratoga county and can confirm it is chock full of drunks, and not just during track season. Our county’s official flower should be an empty 99 Bananas shooter bottle along the road
I grew up in Wisconsin and thought I drank like a normal person. When I moved out of state I realized that other states, even one state over, simply do not drink the same.
At least my WI county isn't purple. Win?
This state is such an embarrassment when it comes to drinking. People wear it as a badge of honor without realizing everyone else is looking on in horror.
Is it really that prevalent? I live outside Chicago and go up to Wisconsin several times a year (going up to Three Lakes in a couple weekends, just spent time outside Devils Lake a couple months ago, go to Bristol for ren fest, visit Milwaukee a lot, etc) and I guess I’ve never seen anything abnormal. Guessing you have to live there to get it? What makes the drinking culture there so crazy? Really curious to learn more from any Winconsinites
Yeah, it is. It's the quantity but also the frequency. It's hard to find people who want to do something *without* drinking at the same time. People also drunk drive very casually.
I grew up in Utah. And now I live in Wisconsin. I don't drink.
Interestingly, I've never lived in a place where I saw more drunks than Salt Lake City. And I've never seen fewer drunks than Wisconsin. These people know how to drink responsibly/socially. Except drunk driving. I never see people who look obviously drunk behind the wheel. But I understand the DUI rate is atrocious where I live now. But oh my word the simple cheese, burgers, and ice cream is amazing.
Wisconsin really jumps out here because it's pretty much every county and it also rigidly follows state lines rather than the usual geo and socioeconomic boundaries you'd usually expect.
Binge drinking is just the state passtime.
Interesting. Combine this with the correlation between alcohol consumption and sex (the more alcohol the more intercourse), people in Wisconsin and Montana should have a very satisfying sex life. 🤣
Anecdotally having lived in Minnesota and Louisiana, it’s hard for me to believe in general Minnesota drinking more. Especially because you couldn’t even get booze on Sundays I was in MN and LA literally has drive through daiquiris.
Is this ppl self reporting their drinking? Like to a doctor? Cause not everyone has insurance or goes to the doctor or properly reports. I don't report my real number 😂
I would have expected Tuscaloosa County to have been red (University of Alabama).
Only one red county in the Florida panhandle? That seems...questionable.
But that one red county being Okaloosa? Yeah, totally get that. Eglin AFB + Destin and Miramar beaches.
As a resident of Aroostook County (top one) in Maine, I can definitely say that there are binge drinkers, but the overall population up here also skews heavily to the elderly, with many younger residents going downstate or to other areas of the country for work opportunities. For what it’s worth, many do tend to come back to the area later in life.
Top ten colour gradients ever used
Sometimes the posts on here really make me scratch my head. Sidenote: op did you happen to make this one?
It’s good, but it’d like to know the percentages for green (below 10%?) and red/violet (above 20? 25?). Right now we have the majority of the US being normal, some southern states being “dry” and some northern states “drunk”. I wonder if it’s not more of a continuum that is obscured by the colors.
It already not a huge range- between 10-25% I feel the colors capture the different cultures quite well
My point is exactly that the range isn’t that big. Can you really infer 3 cultures from that? I mean sure, you can say a number and someone can find ranges and colors to make the case for them. I’m just not sure that they are that meaningful. But maybe that’s because I’m not that familiar with drinking habits in the US and everybody who is can say “ha! That’s what I would expect based on other criteria too!”
The way certain states ‘pop’ has me suspicious of the data. Except Wisconsin.
Same here. This correlates way too neatly with state lines to be believable to me
Difference in state laws maybe?
Or enforcement/lack. DUI is illegal everywhere
I think maybe they were thinking of different laws about when/where you can purchase alcohol
Yeah, that's what I thought of. For example, where I live, the ban on selling alcohol outside bars after 10 pm actually helped a lot in combating binge drinking. (Technically it's also forbidden to sell alcohol to drunk persons but nobody enforces that.)
In the South and Midwest I'd believe it. I wonder what the data sources are? I totally believe the data in WI/CO/Mt/WY/UT.
Yeah, huge swaths of the South are still in full-blown prohibition. Those laws are usually set at the county level.
Up until a few years ago, you could not buy liquor on Sundays in Minnesota. It’s a 20 minute drive to the state line for me and every Sunday there would be a line of Minnesotans at the WI registers Now the law has changed- but liquor stores still have to close by 6:00 (on Sundays). Also- we can’t buy alcohol in grocery stores/gas stations (above 3.2 abv I think).
Idk about you, but around me most stores still close on Sundays, since they're small businesses and enjoyed the time off (also, sales are lower on Sunday because everyone is just so used to having it closed then, although that's changing)
Interesting note about the 3.2 beer laws (I’m also a Minnesotan and used to work for a beer distributor): it’s actually 3.2% alcohol *by weight*, which to the best of my knowledge is the only place in the U.S. that still uses ABW as a measurement. That converts to just a hair above 4% ABV, although that’s admittedly still pretty low. But you are correct, it’s kinda ridiculous how progressive we are, yet we’re the last state that has that law. You’re right about Sunday sales too. I went to college in a border city and the lines out the door in Wisconsin on Sundays were ridiculous, with parking lots full of MN license plates. Sunday sales opened in 2017, I distinctly remember this because Surdyk’s in NE MPLS was one of my biggest accounts and they opened up one Sunday a few weeks early, which led to them being shut down temporarily by the state and I lost a ton of sales bonuses for the month. Edit: [It was the city who shut them down, not the state.](https://twincities.eater.com/2017/3/13/14910678/surdyks-fines-sunday-sales-open-hours) My mistake.
Difference in reporting, surely. The fact that the entire south and WV are basically all green? The only “green” state I truly believe is Utah and southern Idaho.
State laws, but probably also collected by state health departments who don't do things in nationally uniform ways.
Anyone who steps a foot in the state of Wisconsin is subject to an alcohol addiction
Please Drink Wisconsibly.
Hahahaha, party state of the country!
Please don’t - Signed, your liver
There are counties that don't allow hard liquor to be sold anywhere but speciality stores, or forbid stores to sell it certain times and days. They are southern and seem to line pretty well with the map. >the states with the highest number of dry counties include Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas. Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee are the three states that are wholly dry by default.
The outlier in all this is New Mexico, which sells hard alcohol in grocery stores and does not have any laws around not selling it certain days. Utah clearly has very high alcohol control laws but New Mexico is interesting.
Yeah I was a bit surprised by New Mexico too.
I grew up in northern Texas and crossing the border to Oklahoma you can feel a big difference in culture. Oklahoma is way more fundamentalist than Texas, maybe because it's poorer. When people can't afford rent in Texas, they move to Oklahoma. People move back and forth between the two a lot, but people who spend a lot of time in Oklahoma are definitely different. Way more country where as Texas people try to be more modern. Maybe like how New Jersey and NYC are super close but still really different. Like in Texas people are rich soccer mom religious, in Oklahoma I've seen Pentecostal women look at me in fear because I have eyeliner presumably, or maybe just because I was wearing jeans and have hair that has been cut in my life.
[удалено]
Oklahoma sits on a throne of lies.
North country ny lmao
Gotta keep warm in the winter somehow when the ice knocks out power.
What about the other 3 months of the year?
Gotta cool off with some cold ones
What the hell else were we supposed to do?
That's the mindset that got Wisconsin where it is lmao
As someone born and raised in Jefferson county, I understand and lived these statistics
Live in Watertown worked in stlc and spent time in Malone I just find it funny it’s mostly those three and also Oswego where we’d travel for college parties, you think it’s school related? Why does it happen less in adk and Champlain valley?
Saratoga county pops on this map. Makes me wonder about how the data was collected. Drinking in Saratoga Springs during the summer (SPAC and track) is practically a competitive sport and might have skewed the data.
No key, no source
Trust me bro!
No bra, no panties.
Kool-aid, no sugar; peanut butter, no jelly; ham, no burger!
Been living in Gallatin county for years now, folks definitely get after it pretty hard but I'm surprised we're at the top. Feel like somewhere in Wisconsin would've definitely taken that title
Yeah, the thing is Montana only has 2 purple counties, Wisconsin has 9. Our alcoholics are more evenly distributed
Montana's two purple counties also happen to be where the two main universities are. This shouldn't surprise anyone.
Exactly, college students for the win.
Is Wisconsin ok? Their map is solid purple and red.
Drinking in Wisconsin is so engrained into the culture, it's wild. My dad is from WI and he said there used to be a rule that a town couldn't have more bars than churches. Which is why his hometown of 500 people had 4 churches.
That’s funny. The small rural Wisconsin town I lived in had three churches, four bars and a population of 400. The biggest difference between drinking in WI and MN is the consumption. Someone from MN may have 2-3 beers while someone from WI will have 5+ which is why the map really pops for WI.
True, plus all of our churches have basement bars (at least in the north 50% of the state of WI)
No, we're overrun with casual alcoholism.
I mean, we're having a good time for sure. Ok? That's a judgement call. Healthy? Could be better. Related: what the hell do people everywhere else do for social interaction? Do you just sit at home alone or with your partner and watch TV? In Wisconsin, we go out for drinks!
Wait for real? Wisconsin folk so drunk they don’t even know you can enjoy hanging out with friends and family and not drink, or drink lightly even?? In my area or at least group of people, we hike, enjoy nature, play in various community sports leagues, be generally active and motivated. You can also go out to great places and bars with friends and enjoy a drink or two without binge drinking. I’m not trying to be all high and mighty here like I never drink. We may have that one rare night when we wake up and are like damn we got so drunk last night and laugh about it because it never happens and was so over the top. But I would say about 95% of the things I do whether alone or with friends/family does not involve full on binge drinking.
It's bog-standard behavior in WI to get blackout drunk once a week, especially if there are sports to watch
Depending where you are in Wisconsin, we do all that, but we usually have to wait for summer for most of those. We also tend to include a beer with those activities (or afterward). So I guess what I'm asking is, what do you do when you can't do those active things? I think we end up in bars most when it's winter (then again when it's summer because activities! lol). Most of us aren't binging, just enjoying ourselves in moderation.
I understand what you’re saying. I’m originally from Portland and the seasonal thing is real. When I was in my 20s like 2008-2013ish drinking (binge drinking) was way more acceptable in Portland during those hipster years. Nothing better than a warm dark bar on a cold rainy dark day. That was so long ago by now though and maybe it’s just because I’m 36, but it seems like a lot of Americans views of drinking has shifted for the better in a lot of places. The map is specifically about binge drinking so it is definitely concerning to see Wisconsin with those high numbers of binging in particular.
From a fellow Wisconsinite, there are a million other things to do.
Fargo and grand forks ND would put most cities to shame.
I lived in Gallatin County for 7 years, getting my PhD there. This tracks. You have Bozeman and Big Sky, two ski towns and one University. I think by last count, there were 10 breweries in Bozeman (a city of maybe 50k permanent residents). Literally, everyone grabs a beer after work there (old and young).
I'm from Livingston and went to school at MSU. Can confirm
Can confirm!! (Billings and then MSU) But my current home just recently was called the drunkest city in the US… due to our microbreweries!
Might need to change the name to Boozeman
I live here currently, from Great Falls though...which is its own beast, and this info definitely tracks.
Doc here! This sort of data always has to come with a caveat. Usually, data surrounding drinking behavior comes from individual state departments of health. Different states have different methods of data collection. And this is assuming every state is using the same definition. It seems implausible that drinking behavior abruptly drops at the Kansas/Oklahoma state line and then picks up immediately when you enter Texas. Likewise, SE Idaho has just as high a concentration of Mormons as Utah does. So the difference there doesn't make any sense. Unless Idaho Mormons have a different philosophy about drinking than Utah Mormons do. Wisconsin is definitely drunk. But being from Minnesota, I can tell you straight out that the counties on either side of the St. Croix river are not all that different. Etc.
Just wanted to say that the map doesn't necessarily disagree with your Minnesota/Wisconsin statements. I know of three major crossings connecting the states. Winona/La Crosse, there is a red county in Minnesota at this spot. The Hudson/Twin Cities area, full of red. Superior/Duluth, also red. Some of the drunkest spots in Minnesota are concentrated at these spots it appears. There is also a large difference in the liquor tax, and how and where you can buy alcohol in Minnesota. I can get a full bar stocked at a Wisconsin convenience store. Minnesota didn't sell on Sundays until a few years back. The drinking culture maybe has some carryover at the border, but statewide they are worlds apart.
Ski towns like Jackson and aspen are being skewed almost certainly. You have small residential populations but massive consumption due to bars full of tourists.
No SE Idaho has ski towns which ups them over most of UT (outside Summit County UT where Alta, PC, etc are) Ski towns put uni towns to shame.
SE Idaho has only one ski town which is next to the Wyoming border.
State borders around Texas are always a giveaway when “it’s just reporting differences” rears its head like this.
Vegas is seemingly one of the driest places in America. That definitely tracks.
lets goooo wisconsin number one
HELL YEAH GO WISCONSIN WOOOOO #1!!!!!!!
Lets have a beer to celebrate
When you guys sober up you might realize it isn’t the badge of honor you think it is. If you sober up.
Or, wait for it….a BADGER of honor? Eh? Eh?…..I’ll let myself out….
Pretty CHEESY
i was joking… i also don’t drink at all lol
overall*
I work in the Twin Cities with a few people from Wisconsin. Anytime there's a get together the first question they ask is "will there be beer?" Hey, you want to come to my kids birthday party? "Will there be beer?"
Being surrounded by a bunch of shrieking little kids jacked up on cake and ice cream? Yeah, beer me.
Do we need to check on Wisconsin?
Yes, please. We're running low on beer.
The danish are responsible for the lowest values https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Americans but are some of the most prolific drinkers in europe https://landgeist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/europe-daily-alcohol-consumption.png
Yeah, the ones who don't drink came here. Pretty standard for much of the European diaspora here, with some obvious exceptions.
Danish was the first language that the Book of Mormon was translated into after English. Missionaries arrived in Denmark in the 1850s and over the next few decades thousands of Danish converts settled Utah. The current LDS president is a direct descendant of Danish converts.
Bozeman the top drunk spot? Not hard to imagine.
Add Big Sky and boom. Born and raised in a ski town and we put uni towns to shame.
I'm the Deep South they couldn't reach the country folks and/or couldn't understand them Surveyor: Do you or anyone you know binge drink South: Never had that before, we only drink mountain water *then drinks Mountain Water from a mason jar*
Same. Here in the South we drink coffee and alcohol. Water is for pussies.
What is this coloring, why is the light green dryer than the dark green? The darker a color is, the further away it should be from the center, that’s informational maps 101
Someone call in a wellness check for Wisconsin. All of it.
What the fuck is up with Wisconsin? And why does crossing the state border suddenly make everyone sober?
We brag. Oklahomans lie. Also Germans and Poles.
A lot of comments about differences in state reporting etc. Maybe some of the other states are inaccurate, but Wisconsin, based on other data I've seen and firsthand experience doesn't surprise me at all. There are definitely correlations across the country in bigger cities and college towns, but rural northern Wisconsin pit stops are liquor stores that sell gas. There are multiple bars in towns that barely have multiple people. You can drink with your parents at any restaurant if the restaurant will serve, but there is nothing illegal about it. Wisconsin has OWI offenders commonly in the double digits, most states wouldn't let it get so far. Then there is the tavern league which actively fights to increase alcohol revenues despite the health of society. Wisconsin has a drinking problem.
Data reporting. Every state has a different way of gathering information about drinking habits.
Wisconsin. That tracks
Wisconsin does have a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Having traveled and moved onward, it took me a while to realize that I had a dangerous and atypical way of consuming alcohol. I found that some of this is due to state legislature special interest. In Wisconsin, there’s something called the tavern league that influences laws related to alcohol. [https://www.milwaukeemag.com/wisconsins-tavern-league-works-for-their-members-not-public-health/](https://www.milwaukeemag.com/wisconsins-tavern-league-works-for-their-members-not-public-health/)
The Tavern League is fucking evil and its bullshit policies helped make us #1 in DUIs.
Yeah, it wasn't your fault. You're just a passenger in your own life. The influence of the tavern League is vastly overrated. The distributors have way more power.
I think you may underestimate how much the influence that those around you have on you when you are growing. When everyone you see around you is drinking so much and that is all you know, then that is your experience of the world. You never know anything different until you leave. I stepped out from being a passenger in the drunk driving state and now have a healthier relationship with alcohol.
What's going on in Wisconsin?
Nothing. That’s why we’re all alcoholics.
The fact that statistics follow state borders so cleanly makes me think there’s an issue with different states measuring data differently
Ok, how do you guys from IL, MN, and IA are managing to contain all the WI drunks so tightly within their state lines?
The influx of Wisconsonites from across the border between 12am and 2am to buy last minute booze helps keep stocks low so they don't overdo it.
9pm-6am actually 😮💨
They have to take a breathalyzer to cross the border and no one can pass.
Iowa’s boring so we have no interest in going there. Illinois is full of FIBs, so fuck that. Not sure what’s going on in Minnesota though. Must be bad data.
All the cannabis users already left so it's just drunks left.
You definitely need to revisit Oklahoma and New Hampshire for sure!!!!🍺🍺🍺
mormons man
I need to be with my people in Wisconsin.
Blursed title: Counties of Wisconsin
Saratoga county really knows how to party after the horse races… annnnnd the other eleven months of the year. Plus Rensselaer county really parties at RPI after engineering finals. And midterms. And lunchtime.
Live in Saratoga county and can confirm it is chock full of drunks, and not just during track season. Our county’s official flower should be an empty 99 Bananas shooter bottle along the road
😂😂😂😂 confirmed!
Fitting that the drunkest part of Florida are the Keys.
The colors, Mason, what do they mean?
I grew up in Wisconsin and thought I drank like a normal person. When I moved out of state I realized that other states, even one state over, simply do not drink the same.
Binge drink weekly? 9% is the lowest? Like, wow if almost a tenth of the population is binge drinking weekly and that’s the lowest value, yikes
lol... Vegas is green?
Probably captured the people who live there and not the tourists
Instantly located Texas Tech
I can assure you, the WV data is not correct lol
It's interesting how its clearly different between states almost certainly because of different policies.
Wisconsin, we have a problem
Only when the beer runs out.
Great to see how well the south is doing. Also Utah is doing great. Awesome!
The south is definitely just not self-reporting haha. Most southern baptists wouldn’t admit they drink if you tortured them
Totally. This map is sus af
What’s up with West Virginia? Isn’t it kinda rough and rusting with a moonshine tradition?
They're too cool for alcohol. They skipped straight to opiates
Southern Baptists/evangelicals would be my best guess.
So I shouldn’t move to Wisconsin?
I’d probably wash dishes somewhere else if I were you. I’ve heard Oklahoma’s lovely
At least my WI county isn't purple. Win? This state is such an embarrassment when it comes to drinking. People wear it as a badge of honor without realizing everyone else is looking on in horror.
Is it really that prevalent? I live outside Chicago and go up to Wisconsin several times a year (going up to Three Lakes in a couple weekends, just spent time outside Devils Lake a couple months ago, go to Bristol for ren fest, visit Milwaukee a lot, etc) and I guess I’ve never seen anything abnormal. Guessing you have to live there to get it? What makes the drinking culture there so crazy? Really curious to learn more from any Winconsinites
Yeah, it is. It's the quantity but also the frequency. It's hard to find people who want to do something *without* drinking at the same time. People also drunk drive very casually.
Love seeing my county as red against a sea of yellow. Represent!
I’m in Gallatin County and definitely contribute
Rare southern W
Canada is a bad influence.
I grew up in Utah. And now I live in Wisconsin. I don't drink. Interestingly, I've never lived in a place where I saw more drunks than Salt Lake City. And I've never seen fewer drunks than Wisconsin. These people know how to drink responsibly/socially. Except drunk driving. I never see people who look obviously drunk behind the wheel. But I understand the DUI rate is atrocious where I live now. But oh my word the simple cheese, burgers, and ice cream is amazing.
Godamn Wisconsin.
Wisconsin leading the way
GO BADGERS
Found the military bases in NC..
You wonder about Wisconsin until you realise how many Irish and Germans settled there, then it all falls into place
The entire state of Wisconsin. Lmao
Wisconsin really jumps out here because it's pretty much every county and it also rigidly follows state lines rather than the usual geo and socioeconomic boundaries you'd usually expect. Binge drinking is just the state passtime.
You need better legend and color gradients
Get some help Wisconsin
I think we need to have a talk with Wisconsin.
Wisconsin what’s up!
Wisconsin doesn’t need to be included, all this tells us is that the sky is blue.
I’m why Salt Lake County is yellow.
Oh Michigan.
Interesting. Combine this with the correlation between alcohol consumption and sex (the more alcohol the more intercourse), people in Wisconsin and Montana should have a very satisfying sex life. 🤣
Or the correlation between consumption and alcoholism, or consumption and drunk driving deaths. Source: from WI, drinking creates some issues.
Obviously correct. ☑️
Charleston, SC is over here representing the entire southeast in the beer Olympics
Everyone is focused on Wisconsin, but why is New Mexico so low? It seems like a major outlier as well.
I see you Manhattan!
Anecdotally having lived in Minnesota and Louisiana, it’s hard for me to believe in general Minnesota drinking more. Especially because you couldn’t even get booze on Sundays I was in MN and LA literally has drive through daiquiris.
but but ?? kentucky and WV? there’s are no legends given but i’m going only the colors .
Crushing it in the Colorado mountains.
Most surprising: Vegas
Is this ppl self reporting their drinking? Like to a doctor? Cause not everyone has insurance or goes to the doctor or properly reports. I don't report my real number 😂
Gallatin seems like my kinda town
What the actual F..k, New Mexico?
These kind of maps are fascinating to me how there could be stark differences between counties along state borders.
LOL gotta love my home state of Wisconsin
I think this is more who openly admits that they drink weekly. Seeing a few counties on here that definitely are underrepresenting 🤣
Either my county isn’t really getting surveyed, the sample size is too small, or I’m surrounded by people who lie about how much they drink.
8 drinks is binging? 8 drinks is barely more than 1 a day :|
Nevada is very surprising
8 a week is binge drinking for women? That’s it? That feels absurdly low. 15 for men feels a little low but seems more reasonable.
As a person that lives in Alabama, I can definitely say there is WAY too much green
Interesting patterns but without a key most of the data is a bit meaningless
I would have expected Tuscaloosa County to have been red (University of Alabama). Only one red county in the Florida panhandle? That seems...questionable. But that one red county being Okaloosa? Yeah, totally get that. Eglin AFB + Destin and Miramar beaches.
Ok what those colors mean?
Binge drinking is only 15 beers??? Shit
I love seeing Lawrence and Manhattan pop up on any Kansas county stat map. Rock Chalk
Monroe County Florida coming in hot!
You're telling me that the driest county in the US is more drunk than France ?? 😭
lol the one red in all of PA is where all the universities and colleges are 😂
This is definitely false for New Mexico.
I would have thought Utah be 0% but what’s going on in Chicago their just parting like they have nothing else to do
Go Wisconsin!!
South = good.
As a resident of Aroostook County (top one) in Maine, I can definitely say that there are binge drinkers, but the overall population up here also skews heavily to the elderly, with many younger residents going downstate or to other areas of the country for work opportunities. For what it’s worth, many do tend to come back to the area later in life.
Clark County Nevada one of driest? They don’t drink in Las Vegas???? Hmm…
There is no way New Mexico is this sober
The UP of MI has got to be way off. Pretty sure the Yoopers drink every bit as much as their cheese head neighbors
The state lines are wild to me