Unveiling North Dakota's Drinking Habits: A Closer Look At Alcohol Consumption

Over the weekend, I was grocery shopping and getting ready for the week ahead. I don't make it a point look at what people are putting in their carts, but what caught my eye was all the people coming out of the liquor store. Brown bags, cases of beer, and smiles all around.

I am no prude, and I do enjoy a few beers with friends and family, but I wondered where we as a state lands when it comes to drinking. As I have said before, with the advent of the internet, you can find almost anything.

Judging by the map from intoxistates.com, North Dakota really holds its own when it comes to getting our drink on.

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According to data collected from intoxistates.com, in Ward County (Minot) 24.69% of the county's residents are excessive drinkers. Williams County (Williston) partakes even more. Data collected shows 24.78% of the county residents are excessive drinkers.

If you look at Montana, you'll see our friends in the Treasure State can "get er done" too when it comes to drinking.

https://intoxistates.com/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0ieTZGwaoPpZMo9iT5XMpudBN4WWVj7hIrNeBnqaVQrHv5vx-n1QWlG0M_aem_AdduXe9Vo8FnEKYXzzmlbvxyYr_uOoGnu72El1egzQFzIv1tk5tXCjPlG-4JHC_MAgzQBWmxixLib9pLIEMszD6_

Montana

Notice all the red? And the purple is not good at all. According to data collected from intoxistates.com, that dark purple area is Gallatin County, where you'll find Boseman. 26.8% of the county's residents are excessive drinkers. That lighter shade of purple is Missoula County, where 25.49% of residents are excessive drinkers.

Closer to home, Richland County (Sidney) shows that 22.84% of residents are excessive drinkers.

Now, let's take a look at the USA in general.

America

Based on the map above, at least we can take comfort in knowing we are not living in Wisconsin. 7 of their counties are over 25% when it comes to excessive drinking, and only 1 county in the state, Burnett, comes in at 19.5% of residents drinking to much. Seet down Wisconsin!

So, the next time you're stocking up for the week ahead and see those cheerful folks emerging from the liquor store, just remember—whether you're in North Dakota, Montana, or even Wisconsin, you're in good company. Maybe it's the cold winters or the wide-open spaces, but it seems like we've got a knack for raising a glass. Cheers to that! And hey, let's all remember to enjoy responsibly. After all, there's always a map somewhere showing someone else is drinking more.

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Gallery Credit: Angela Underwood