The Drunkest City In Illinois 2017: Bloomington

BLOOMINGTON, IL — States with the highest rates of excessive drinking are in the Midwest, and Illinois is no different. A new report finds the libationary Land of Lincoln comes out as No. 5 on the list of drunkest states in the union, the Bloomington the metro area with the highest rate of excessive drinking.

Bloomington's reported rate of binge or heavy drinking is 21.5 percent, which is in the top 10 percent nationally and just a tad higher than the state average.

The report notes that better-educated populations tend to report higher levels of excessive alcohol consumption, and Bloomington's rate of people with four-year degrees or higher is eight percent higher than the state average. Additionally, it found 35.1 percent of driving deaths in the area are found to be connected to drinking.

Using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data to examine the percentage of people over the age of 18 who report heavy drinking in each metropolitan statistical area, the new report from 24/7 Wall St. calculates the drunkest city in each state.

On a state level, North Dakota – at 24.7 percent – has the highest rate of binge or heavy drinking and Tennessee had the lowest with just 11.2 percent. The national average is 18 percent, and Illinois comes in at 21.2 percent.

In addition to being better educated than the average population, metro areas reporting higher levels of excessive drinking are reportedly healthier than the average population in each state, according to the report, which notes that binge drinking is never healthy.

How does Illinois compare to its neighbors?

Indiana (16.8 percent) reports the 17th lowest rate of excessive drinking, Kentucky (16.3 percent) even fewer binge drinkers, Missouri (17.7 percent) comes in just a tad under the national average, Iowa (21 percent) reports a slightly lower rate than Illinois but Wisconsin (24.5 percent) is the second-drunkest state in the nation, with Green Bay – one of only five metro areas in the country where half of all deaths on the are found to be alcohol related – reporting 26.5 percent of adults engage in excessive drinking.

» Read more: 100 Drunkest Towns in Illinois

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