You might think that drinking is not a huge problem in the modern United States, but in reality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) completed a study this year, concluding that excessive drinking cost American economy around $250 billion in 2010 alone. This is one year. Two hundred and fifty billion. Yes billion, with a B.
The way they calculated this is that they looked at the health care costs which have to do with alcohol consumption and loss to productivity stemming from excessive use of alcohol. In addition to this, they have identified which metro areas in their respective states drink the most.
In order to do this, they had to come up with “norms” that would constitute binge drinking and heavy drinking. They defined binge drinking as consuming 4 or more drinks in one sitting for women and 5 or more for men. Heavy drinking was defined as 15 or more drinks a week consumed by men and 8 or more for women.
The 24/7 Wall St. website then took their MSA report and did further analysis to find out which cities were the booziest in the country, reporting the highest numbers of binge and heavy drinking in their states.
And while this list will make great conversation, it is nothing to be taken lightly. For instance, the majority of cities that have made the list report the overall poorer health than other metro areas in their states. In addition to this, cities with larger percentage of binge and heavy drinkers also commonly report higher number of driving fatalities which are only too often associated with alcohol consumption.
Without further ado, we give you the drunkest cities in your state:
- Alabama – Auburn-Opelika
- Alaska – Fairbanks
- Arizona – Phoenix-Mesa –Scottsdale
- Arkansas – Hot Springs
- California – Napa
- Colorado – Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
- Connecticut – Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk
- Delaware –Dover
- Florida – Sebastian-Vero Beach
- Georgia – Hinesville
- Hawaii – Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina
- Idaho – Lewiston
- Illinois – Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- Indiana – Michigan City-La Porte
- Iowa – Dubuque
- Kansas – Lawrence
- Kentucky – Louisville/Jefferson County
- Louisiana – Lafayette
- Maine – Portland-South Portland
- Maryland – Baltimore-Columbia-Towson
- Massachusetts – Pittsfield
- Michigan – Monroe
- Minnesota – Duluth
- Mississippi – Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula
- Missouri – St. Louis
- Montana – Missoula
- Nebraska – Omaha-Council Bluffs
- Nevada – Reno
- New Hampshire – Manchester-Nashua
- New Jersey – Atlantic City-Hammonton
- New Mexico – Las Cruces
- New York – Kingston
- North Carolina – Jacksonville
- North Dakota – Fargo
- Ohio – Toledo
- Oklahoma – Lawton
- Oregon – Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro
- Pennsylvania – East Stroudsburg
- Rhode Island – Providence-Warwick
- South Carolina – Charleston-North Charleston
- South Dakota – Sioux Falls
- Tennessee – Clarksville
- Texas – Corpus Christi
- Utah – Salt Lake City
- Vermont – Burlington-South Burlington
- Virginia – Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News
- Washington – Longview
- West Virginia – Weirton-Steubenville
- Wisconsin – Appleton
- Wyoming – Casper
