Methodology

To identify the drunkest city in every state, 24/7 Tempo reviewed the percentage of adults in each of the country’s 383 metropolitan statistical areas who reported drinking excessively in the past 30 days. Metro level data was aggregated from county level data assembled in 2020 by County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program.

Excessive drinking includes both binge and heavy drinking. CHR’s excessive drinking estimates are derived from 2017 survey data. According to the CDC, heavy drinking is defined as consuming at least 15 drinks a week or averaging two or more drinks a day for men. For women, heavy drinking is defined as consuming eight drinks or more per week or more than one drink on average a day. The CDC defines binge drinking as a pattern of alcohol consumption that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration level to 0.08% or higher, which takes about five or more drinks within two hours for men and four or more drinks for women.

Health outcomes, including the number of alcohol-related driving deaths, also came from county-level data obtained from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. Driving fatalities involving alcohol are for the years 2014-2018.

Social and economic factors such as median household income came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 1-year American Community Survey.