2017’s Most Fun States in America

2017’s Most Fun States in America

Worst list ever? They rank South Dakota 3rd in "nightlife." New York is 41st and California is 49th. It pretty much seems reversed.

Here's why:

The Nightlife rating is based on the low cost of movies, the low cost of beer, and a high number of bars per capita. (Translating this to a broader stage, all of those grim industrial cities in Siberia have really hot nightlife, but Paris does not.)

Consider how absurd those criteria are individually:

* Start with "bars per capita" and ask yourself, which city is likely to have more exciting night life: one with many bars and few customers per bar, or one with a few large clubs?

* Beer and wine prices are lowest in rural areas with low taxes. Does that sound like hot nightlife to you. Wisconsin is rated 7th best in nightlife, but only 33rd in recreation - pretty much the opposite of where it should be. We get a lot of tourists who come here for hunting and fishing and skimobiling, but nobody comes to Wisconsin for the nightlife. Yeah, we have a lot of bars and we're the drunkest state in the union, but that doesn't make us Austin or Vegas or LA or New Orleans. It just means we have a lot of people drinking because there's nothing else to do.