These states have the highest rates of binge drinking (2024)

FAQs

These states have the highest rates of binge drinking? ›

As of 2022, the U.S. states with the highest prevalence of binge drinking among adults were North Dakota, Montana, and Iowa. In North Dakota, around 23 percent of adults stated they binge drank in the last 30 days in 2022.

Excessive Drinking by State

Instead, it was Gallatin County in Montana that topped out the list — 27% of adults in the southern county self-reported binge or heavy drinking in 2021. However, all 72 of Wisconsin's counties had an excessive drinking rate at or above 20%.

Naturally, California consumes the most alcohol in raw volume with a whopping 88.6 million gallons drunk in 2021 — nearly 30 million more than runner-up Texas's 58.9 million gallons. Floridians take the bronze, with 55.2 million gallons consumed in 2021.

Men in Romania, Denmark, and Luxembourg were the heaviest binge drinkers, while women in Denmark and the United Kingdom were tied as the heaviest binge drinkers. On average, 26 per cent of men reported binge drinking at least once a month in OECD countries compared to 12 per cent of women.

Unsurprisingly, the most densely populated states in the U.S. consume the most alcohol by volume. California leads the pack with 85.7 million gallons consumed in 2020. Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois round out the remainder of the top five. Conversely, Wyoming, Alaska, and South Dakota consume the least.

Highest Alcohol Consumption by State

The 10 states with the highest alcohol consumption levels in the US are New Hampshire, Vermont, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Maine, Delaware, Wisconsin, Hawaii and Pennsylvania.

How Common Is Binge Drinking? According to the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), about 61 million, or 21.7%, of people in the United States ages 12 and older reported binge drinking during the past month.

It turns out that Milwaukee exceptionally lives up to its reputation as “Beer City,” ranking as the drunkest city in the U.S. with an average of three breweries, 36.7 general bars, and 2.7 wine bars per 100,000 residents.

Vodka is the most consumed liquor in the United States - and has been since 1970. Around 78.1 million cases of the spirit were sold in the U.S. in 2021.

Men in Romania are, by and large, the heaviest drinkers on the planet. The average Romanian male drinks 27.3 liters, or 8.2 standard drinks, per year. It's not just the men in Romania that boast such high numbers. As a country, Romanians drink an average of 16.99 liters per year, nearly 3 liters more than Georgians.

How many people binge drink in the US? ›

According to the 2022 NSDUH, 61.2 million people ages 12 and older (21.7% in this age group) reported binge drinking in the past month (see glossary for definition of binge drinking).

Depending on your age, different factors may come into play, but some motivations are common among all age groups. Stress. People often use binge drinking as a way to self-medicate symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress.

Chronic severe alcoholics average 38 years of age. They begin drinking around age 16 and develop alcohol dependence later, around 29 years of age. This group has the highest rates of drinking, consuming alcohol on an average of almost 248 days a year and binge drinking on 69% of them with a maximum of 15 drinks.

One common theory about why Wisconsin's drinking culture is so extreme is linked to the state's German heritage. About 43 percent of the state's population claims German roots, which explains Wisconsin's drinking culture — so the theory goes — since medieval Germans are the ones who invented hopped beer.

Alcoholism Stats

More than 6 percent of adults in the U.S. have an alcohol use disorder, about 1 in 12 men and 1 in 25 women. An additional 623,000 people between the ages of 12 and 17 have alcohol use disorders. About 88,000 people die of alcohol-related causes every year in the United States.

The biggest shares of adults taking part in heavy drinking episodes at least once a month were found in Denmark (38 per cent), Romania (35 per cent), Luxembourg (34 per cent), Germany (30 per cent) and Belgium (28 per cent).

Using data from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, logistic regressions reveal significant racial differences, with whites having higher odds of binge drinking than other groups.

NIAAA defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 percent - or 0.08 grams of alcohol per deciliter - or higher. For a typical adult, this pattern corresponds to consuming 5 or more drinks (male), or 4 or more drinks (female), in about 2 hours.

According to data from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), of those 12 and older 47.5% (i.e., more than 133 million people) drank alcohol in the past month and 21.5% of this age group (i.e., 60 million people) were binge drinkers.