Business Insider/Thrillist had an item not to long ago about per capita beer consumption by state, though they unceremoniously titled it The States That Guzzle The Most Beer. The data is based on information from the Beer Institute’s “Shipments of Malt Beverages and Per Capita Consumption by State 2012.” Business Insider made the statement that “the more unassuming states tended to out-booze their brethren, proving once again that you should always look out for the quiet ones silently pounding ales in the corner.” But whenever you look at per capita data, it always favors the less-populated states, and so doesn’t seem like a particularly accurate or meaningful measure of anything. It’s fun to see, but I don’t think you can draw too many grand conclusions from it. Here, for example, is the top ten.
- North Dakota
- New Hampshire
- Montana
- South Dakota
- Wisconsin
- Nevada
- Vermont
- Nebraska
- Texas
- Maine
Not surprisingly, Utah drinks the least, per capita, but the fact that New York and New Jersey are in the bottom five should tell you everything you need to know about how meaningless consumption by per capita can be. California, the most populous state, and with twice the number of breweries as any other state, ranks 44th, very near the bottom. Here’s the bottom five.
- Maryland
- New York
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- Utah