Wyoming Ranked #1 For The State With The Most ‘Binge Drinkers’
While normally we love it when the Cowboy State tops a list, not in this case. A new study conducted by USNews.com states that Wyoming is by far the worst state in the country for binge drinking.
First, let's break down the term binge-drink. By definition, it means:
to consume an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time.
The study went into detail about how much the national average has increased exponentially since 2011. According to data gleaned from the Center for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. reportedly partake in the high-consumption habit. It also stated:
In 2015, 37 million (17.1%) U.S. adults reported binge drinking approximately once a week and consumed an average of seven drinks per binge drinking episode, resulting in approximately 450 total binge drinks per adult who reported binge drinking annually.
The age-adjusted total annual number of binge drinks per adult who reported binge drinking increased significantly from 472 in 2011 to 529 in 2017. Total annual binge drinks per adult who reported binge drinking also increased significantly from 2011 to 2017 among those aged 35–44 years (26.7%, from 468 to 593) and 45–64 years (23.1%, from 428 to 527). The largest percentage increases in total binge drinks per adult who reported binge drinking during this period were observed among those without a high school diploma (45.8%) and those with household incomes less than $25,000 (23.9%).
While Massachusetts landed on the top ten list at number 10, they averaged 320 binge drinks per adult, while Wyoming at the number 1 spot, averaged over 3.8 times as much at 1219 binge drinks per adult.
It's also worth noting that excessive drinking contributes to 1 in 10 deaths among adults in America, between the ages of 20 and 64 each year.