I've seldom seen a U.S. map where one state stands out so distinctly from all the others:
As the title says, this is a map of drunkest and driest counties, where green is the lowest percent drunk, yellow is mid, red is high and purple is highest. Drunkest means excessive drinking.
I don't know, though I assume, that the data is self-reported. Not too surprisingly, the Bible-belt states of the South have a lot of green, as does Utah and parts of Idaho and Nevada where there are a lot of Mormons as well. I was surprised about how green New Mexico is. Not sure what that's about. Montana and western North Dakota are drunker than I would have thought.
But the standout, and the reason for this post, is Wisconsin.
On one hand, I'm not surprised, because I know Wisconsin has more bars per capita than any other state, but dang, look at the immediate color change all around that state: the difference between Illinois and Wisconsin, between the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Wisconsin, between the northeast edge of Iowa and Wisconsin.
Minnesota is the only state whose counties have a little bit of drinking commonality with Wisconsin, and the one county in Wisconsin that's not red or purple is next to Minnesota as well. It's often said that Minnesota and Wisconsin are near-twins, but this is one obvious way that they clearly are not.
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