U.S. counties with the highest and lowest rates of excessive drinking.
Observations:
* There are legitimately low levels of drinking in the deep South, Appalachia, and Oklahoma. It could be that people there can't afford to buy alcohol. Religion could be another factor. The fact that people in these states behave so badly while being more sober than average isn't impressive.
* Low rates of drinking in Utah and parts of Idaho (which is heavily Mormon as well) are unsurprising.
* Low rates of drinking in almost all of New Mexico, the Indian Reservation area of Arizona are mildly surprising.
* Low rates of excessive drinking in Las Vegas are very surprising.
* Wisconsin is well known for its heavy drinking. Alaska and Montana are unsurprising on that score. North Dakota and Colorado are mildly more surprising.
6 comments:
I am doing my best to increase Colorado's score. Bottoms up.
What in the heck is up with Wisconsin?
And, Arkansas and Oklahoma are still dry by county. Interesting that when smaller civics are given the option they often chose to ban the demon rum. Having lived right above the Arkansas-Missouri border it's a truism that there are two bars, one on either side, for each place a road connects the two states.
And, it would be interesting go see a time series of this data. It would seem, sans anything but rumor, that the drinking level in New Mexico would have been much higher two generations ago.
Lots of Catholics and Lutherans, but very few Evangelical Protestants or Mormons. And, it's fricking cold and bleak a lot of the year, hunting season and fishing are institutions, and there are lots of colleges where beer is an article of faith. You can get beer on tap at a Denny's.
What is our source for this graphic? I see it shared a lot, but never with a source. I've looked for source data on my own before, but this topic and gun violence both seem to be a swampy, patchy, minefield of uncorrelated topics and sketchy methods.
The best I've seen is this BRFSS-based study, with the most recent version I find is from 2012. None of its maps even casually resemble this page's graphic. It could really use an update, but with the BRFSS being CDC-led, I suspect we may have seen the last of these kinds of studies on any topics. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302313
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