America’s Hardest Drinking Cities

Austin, Texas, is famous for its parties. People flock from around the world to attend events like the annual South by Southwest film and music festival. And when they get there, chances are they make like the locals and throw back a few cold ones–because Austin may be the hardest-drinking city in America.

Austin ranks high for its drinking habits across the board. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey, 61.5% of adult residents say they have had at least one drink of alcohol within the past 30 days, and a staggering 20.6% of respondents confess to binge drinking, or having five or more drinks on one occasion.

Some residents attribute those numbers to the city’s sizable population of college students. Austin is home to several schools, including the University of Texas at Austin, one of the largest universities in the country.
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Coming in second on the list is Milwaukee. This city, known as “the nation’s watering hole,” has a long reputation as a city built on beer. It was once the nation’s top beer-producing city, home to four of the world’s largest breweries: Schlitz, Pabst, Miller and Blatz. Legendary sitcom characters Laverne and Shirley fixed bottle caps on one of the city’s assembly lines. Even the town’s baseball team–the Brewers–reflects its boozy past.

Rounding out the top five hardest-drinking cities are San Francisco; Providence, R.I.; and Chicago.

Source: Forbes.com

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 and is filed under Lists and Rankings, Source File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.