Monday Trivia, No. 80

Data is current as of 2011. New Hampshire has the highest number, followed by North Dakota with the next-highest. Utah has the lowest number, followed by Connecticut with the next-lowest. Click for a larger version of map.

Burt Likko

Pseudonymous Portlander. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering litigator. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Recovering Former Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.

20 Comments

      • Well, actually it’s gallons per person rather than a percentage, and “malt beverages” in general, but still.

        • Interesting. given that each gallon corresponds to 10.7 twelve ounce beers, that means an average of a beer a day.

          I think it would be interesting to look at statistics of “how many people regularly drink beer”. thirty people drinking a beer every Friday is a very different thing than twenty-nine teetotalers and a guy who puts away a thirty pack by himself.

          I wonder why Connecticut is so low. Utah, of course, makes sense. But Connecticut?

          • Well, until this spring, Connecticut prohibited the sale of alcohol on Sundays. As a Connecticut native, there have certainly been sundays on which I wanted a drink, didn’t have anything lying around the house and didn’t feel like driving. Obviously it is just anecdotal, but the old laws definitely curbed my consumption.

          • I wonder to what extent some of these numbers are affected by cross-border sales due to either time/date sales restrictions or taxes.

            Nevada is likely boosted significantly by tourism.

          • Looking at the numbers in kenB’s reference, New Hampshire comes in first among the 50 states for wine consumption by a wide margin. Is everyone up there depressed, or is it just a big party state?

  1. Percentage of population that wears flannel on a regular basis for non-ironic reasons?

  2. Consumption of beer by gallon per citizen of legal drinking age.

  3. All of the really high numbers are in not particularly dense states… which means that the “national” number is a lot closer to California and New York (lower than average) than the 30s and 4os we see to the North.

    Which is probably so freakin’ obvious that I should be embarrassed to think it interesting enough to point it out but I typed this much, dangit, I’m going to post the comment.

    • Yes, but look at Texas: high population, densely-sited in several large urban centers and also lots of rural areas. And a high rate of beer consumption. No surprise that Texans enjoy their beer, of course, but their number seems higher so it’s fair to say they like their beer MORE.

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