Fresno tops list of 'drunkest' cities in America, according to magazine's new rankings

Fresno tops the list of the drunkest cities in America

Austin also placed in the top 5. Interestingly, Las Vegas did not. I suspect this is because of a methodological error. The rankings are based on data like liver disease, alcohol-fueled car crashes and the number of DUI arrests. The liver disease data really only show the drinking habits of the locals, not of all the people who are present at any given time, so all the drunken tourists in Vegas and New Orleans would not show up in those statistics. Despite that, those two towns finished 11th and 25th, respectively. Moreover, the driving-related data would be acutely biased against any town where people do not normally drive personal vehicles to and from work and events. Therefore, New York City would place low simply because so many of the drunks are on public transportation or in taxis rather than in their cars.

According to the analysis, Fresno has one museum, seven movie theaters and 106 bars.

Y'know, 106 bars within a 15-mile radius for 500,000 people doesn't seem like that many to me. I'm thinking Wisconsin got screwed in this analysis. According to yellowpages.com, Green Bay has 56-59 "bars" for 100,000 people.

According to the alcohol sales per capita, the three top states are New Hampshire, Nevada, and Wisconsin. I suppose Nevada's high numbers are attributable to the alcohol purchased by tourists, so that would make New Hampshire and Wisconsin the big two for locals.

(Studies of self-reported alcohol abuse generally show that the Midwest has the highest level of heavy drinking.)

I have no theory to explain how Rochester, New York, my birth town, could be one of the three soberest cities in the USA, although it doesn't strike me as especially surprising. What does surprise me is that Miami is one of the five soberest!