Mapping the ‘drunkest’ cities

Men’s Health has published a list of America’s “drunkest” cities. The title is sexy, to be sure, but inaccurate. These are not the cities that consume the most alcohol. They are the cities with the most alcohol-related crime and deaths. The list was compiled using death rates from alcohol-related auto accidents and alcoholic liver disease, and binge drinking and DUI reports.

In other words, there’s no honor in being No. 1. (Or even No. 6, St. Louis.) Cities are ranked “drunkest” (most alcohol-related deaths and crimes) to most “sober” (fewest alcohol-related deaths and crimes); each city also is awarded a grade, A through F.

The list includes 100 cities. I wanted to look for geographic trends, so I created a quick-and-dirty color-coded map: Red = F; purple = D; blue = C; yellow = B; green = A

View ‘Drunkest’ cities in a larger map

Cities with good public transportation and taxi systems were more likely to receive A and B ratings (Boston, New York and Chicago, for example). There appears to be more alcohol-related crime and deaths west of the Mississippi River. California appears to be hit the hardest.

I have some other maps sitting around, so I did a little quick comparison. The “drunkest” cities (marked with red pins) seem to match up (not perfectly, of course) with the cities where 75 or more newspaper employees were laid off in 2009.

(Men’s Health may put together its own map. I found one for a previous year, but not a current version. Sadly, there is no date on the map that I did find.)