Mapped: Alcohol Consumption by State

United States Travel
by Morgan deBoer Jan 27, 2014

Hover your mouse over your state to see what your fellow citizens are getting trashed on.
Beer consumption per capita (in gallons)
Wine consumption per capita (in gallons)
Liquor consumption per capita (in gallons)

I TEACH an English class in Japan, and during our holiday party last month we talked about Christmas and New Years, exchanged gifts, and listened to “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” a few times. My co-teacher, a Japanese woman, explained that in Japan the days before December 31st are a time of serious and solemn contemplation, while in the US the end of the year is a time to get crazy. She pantomimed taking a big drink of something and the class laughed.

My main job in the class is to talk about myself in English, so I told them in my family we drink wine and egg nog with rum or brandy on Christmas and champagne and cocktails on New Years. One year we had Four Loko on Christmas Eve, but I didn’t tell them that.

What do most Americans drink during the rest of the year? The Beer Institute collects information on the consumption, by state, of beer, wine, and liquor. In their Beer Almanac, they divide consumption by state to determine the average consumption of each per capita. The maps above show the 2011 numbers.

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