Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was used to rank the states in order of excessive alcohol consumption. As it turns out, North Dakota tops the list as America's booziest state.
Alcohol Loving States
Drinking alcohol is a normal part of many people's lives that can go from social drinking to full-on alcoholism. Evidently, the CDC collects data on Americans' alcohol consumption, and a financial news site used this data to rank the states from the heaviest to the lightest drinkers.
At the very top of the list was North Dakota, where 24.7 percent of adults drink alcohol excessively. Unsurprisingly, the state also has the highest alcohol-related driving deaths at 46.7 percent, which is significantly higher than the 30 percent national share.
Following very closely after North Dakota is Wisconsin, where 24.5 percent of adults tend to drink excessively, and the alcohol-related driving deaths are still quite high at 36.9 percent, which is 10 percent lower than North Dakota but still above the national share. Interestingly, Wisconsin still has low premature death rates.
Alaska and Montana follow Wisconsin in the list of alcohol-loving states, with a respective 22.1 percent and 21.8 percent of adults excessively drinking. However, though Montana has the lower percentage of excessive drinkers of the two, the state has the second highest percentage of alcohol-related driving deaths at 46.3 percent.
The Bottom Of The List
Of the 50 states in the list, Alabama ranked the 47th in terms of excessive alcohol consumption, while Utah was ranked 48th with 13 percent and 12.4 percent excessive alcohol consumption among adults, respectively. However, Alabama is just the 17th lowest in terms of alcohol-related driving deaths at 29 percent, while Utah has the actual lowest percentage of such deaths at 19.7 percent.
West Virginia is almost at the very bottom of the list of excessive alcohol drinkers with just 11.4 percent of their adults reporting excessive drinking, but the state's percentage of alcohol-related driving deaths is quite high at 32 percent.
The state with the lowest percentage of excessive alcohol drinkers is Tennessee, with just 11.2 percent of adults reporting excessive alcohol consumption. It is also significantly lower than the nationwide percentage of 18 percent. However, Tennessee also has one of the highest percentages of premature deaths despite having the lowest percentage of excessive drinkers, perhaps due to the fact that it is also the state with the seventh highest adult smoking rate at 21 percent.
The CDC states that binge drinking is defined as having four or more drinks for women and five drinks for men on a single occasion, while heavy drinking is defined by having at least eight drinks a week for women and 15 drinks a week for men. Both are considered in terms of excessive alcohol drinking. On the other hand, moderate drinking can be defined as having one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men.
