America’s 50 Largest Cities, Ranked by How Much They Drink [Map]

It’s no secret that Americans like to drink. With approximately 70,000 fully operational bars and nightclubs across the country — not to mention the growth of off-premise consumption — U.S. drinkers consume upwards of $220 billion of alcohol per year. Seeing the raw numbers, it may be easiest to assume cities like Las Vegas, Miami, and New York account for most of that alcohol, as the bustling metropolises are infamous for their wild nightlife scenes. However, this assumption neglects to account for the population density of these cities.

In a recent report, Real Estate Witch analyzed data from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, the U.S. Census Bureau, Walk Score, Expatistan.com, Yelp, and Google Trends to rank America’s top 50 most populous cities in order from drunkest to most sober. Each ranking takes into consideration the cities’ walkability, safety score, trending drinking-related search terms (happy hour, bars near me, hangover cure, etc.) and number of bars, breweries, and wine bars per 100,000 residents.

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. This exceeds the national city average handily by 131 percent, 99 percent, and 60 percent, respectively — in fact, not a single one of America’s top 10 most populous cities even appears in the top 10 drunkest. Chicago is the first of that bunch to appear on the list, holding down in the 12th spot.

Curious to see where your city stacks up? Take a peek at our map below to see just how much Americans in the most populous cities like to imbibe.

Ranking the Drunkest, Largest Cities in America

*Editor’s note: Photo retrieved from SeanPavonePhoto – stock.adobe.com