Where Americans Drink the Most

In which states and areas of the country do Americans drink the most?  Where does the most binge drinking take place? Which races and ethnic groups drink more often?

All of these questions were raised in new research just released by DETOX.net.  Although New Jersey isn't specifically mentioned, many nearby states and our section of the country factor in the research. Here's an overview of the study.

Wisconsin has the highest proportion of drinkers of any state.
Meanwhile, Tennessee and West Virginia have the smallest percentage of heavy drinkers in the United States.

Overall, people drink significantly more in the North than in the South; Utah has the smallest percentage of tipplers; and when it comes to binge-drinking, Wisconsin comes in first.

Data was collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2011 to 2013. Detox.net, a site that helps people locate facilities for substance abuse and alcohol treatment, combed through the info and produced a series of maps and graphs of boozing in the U.S.

Wisconsin stands out both for its total proportion of drinkers—nearly two-thirds of adults say they have had a drink in the past 30 days—and binge drinkers: 24 percent admit to being binge-drinkers, placing it first in proportion of bingers. On average, these people say they down between eight and nine drinks at a time.

North Dakota and Washington, D.C. come in a close second and third, respectively, with 23.9 percent and 23.5 percent of adults reporting to binge-drink. Iowa and Illinois round out the top five binge-drinking states, making the Midwest the most common place to go overboard on alcohol.

The Midwest has the most binge-drinking. Detox.net D.C. also has the second highest proportion of drinkers at 65 percent, and the top five is rounded out by three states in the Northeast: Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, all at 64 percent.

The survey also found that heavy drinking peaked around the age of 21, with other minor "mini-peaks" around the early-40s and early-50s.