Teetotalers. Abraham Lincoln was one. George W. Bush became one. President Trump is as well, likely one of few things he shares with his possible eventual-opponent Joe Biden. It’s not too common a trait but about one-third of Americans say they abstain from alcohol. And in Georgia, it might be more common than you think.
More than half of Americans are regular drinkers, with 56 percent reporting having had a drink in the past month, according to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Alcohol has a pretty wild history in America: the Whiskey Rebellion and the Prohibition era are just a couple major events in history centered on the ability to sell – or not sell – alcohol.
Colonial-era Americans were quite fond, drinking nearly 6 gallons per person per year, compared to just 2.3 gallons per person now. Somewhat ironically, there was a medical reason behind some of this consumption. Not that they understood the reasons – bacteria wouldn’t be discovered until later – but clean water was relatively tricky to find in the colonial era. There were no taps of course and well water is highly susceptible to problems if there are no filters.
The sickness that could come from tainted water was bad indeed, many of them requiring a significant amount of time in the restroom and potential death. The chemical process that is required in brewing beer or making liquor often eliminates many of these waterborne diseases so although we may laugh at the idea of everyone being tipsy walking around 1700’s Boston, better to be walking around tipsy all the time than in the bathroom.
We’ve come a long way and clean water is – for the most part – an assumed part of American life. But we certainly retain a fondness for alcohol. We manage to turn every holiday or festival into an excuse for drinking. But Georgians apparently do so a little less than everyone else, except for Arkansas. A new study from safehome.org ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia and found Georgia ranked 50th in the country for “drunkest Americans.”
The study used an index of sorts to rank. Georgia was ranked 40th in percent of adults who drink at 48 percent. For comparison, the District of Columbia was ranked at the top with 70 percent of adults drinking regularly. The population of D.C. is skewed young – think of all those staffers for our federal government – however so a more representative sample of a full state, Vermont, which has 66 percent who drink regularly. And the percent of Georgians who do drink is down nearly 8 percent since 2008.
In D.C., the percent of adults who binge drink regularly is 38.8 – bing-drinking is defined as consuming several drinks in a short period. In Georgia, this number is “only” 22.% percent. Another interesting statistic they used is craft breweries per capita. In Georgia, this one may be a little deceiving because of some difficult laws that delayed the craft brewery market but it’s only 1.1 craft breweries per 100,000 adults. In Colorado, one of the craft brew capitals, it’s 9.2 per capita.
Next time you have a party, remember to put out some O’Douls.
