America's least drunk states are Utah and... West Virginia?


The folks at the Global Health Data Exchange have all kinds of interesting maps. Here's one on general alcohol consumption of any kind. Red = relatively more drinkers, blue = relatively fewer:
Most people know Mormons are supposed to be teetotalers, so the fact that Utah doesn't drink much isn't surprising. But check out that blue zone in and around West Virginia! And while this is just measuring any sort of drinking, West Virginia also has a relatively low prevalence of binge drinking.
So contrary to the backwoods moonshine stereotype, it turns out that Appalachia tends to avoid drinking almost as much as Zion. Make sure to check out the interactive map here.
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Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.
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