How St. Cloud Ranks on 24/7 Wall Street’s 50 Drunkest Cities List

(KNSI) — A new list released by 24/7 Wall Street is ranking the top 50 drunkest American cities, and four Minnesota towns are on the list.

According to the website, the list’s methodology came from reviewing excessive drinking rates from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program’s 2021 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps report.

Excessive drinking was defined as the share of adults who reported binge drinking in the last 30 days. The Centers for Disease Control classify binge drinking as men who consume five or more alcoholic beverages or women who consume four or more alcoholic drinks in one sitting. Heavy drinking is considered, on average, a woman having more than one drink per day or a man having more than two drinks per day.

Read more about the methodology here.

The Fargo Moorhead area, encompassing Minnesota and North Dakota, came in at number 45. The study showed 22.5% of adults admit to binge drinking or heavy drinking. The area was also the 40th highest of 384 metro areas for drunk driving deaths.

Minneapolis St. Paul and the Twin Cities metro area was number 38. The study said 22.9% of respondents engage in binge drinking or heavy drinking. It was also number 118 out of 384 metros for driving deaths involving alcohol. 24/7 Wall Street said 31.4% of deaths came from alcohol-involved crashes.

St. Cloud ranked in the middle of the pack at number 27. It said 23.5% of adults engage in binge or heavy drinking and 28.6% of driving deaths are alcohol-involved crashes. St. Cloud was 185 out 384.

Duluth Superior was ranked 16th for 25.2% of adults engaging in binge or heavy drinking, and 34.5% of deadly crashes involved alcohol. They were 67th out of 384 metro areas for fatal drunk driving crashes.

As for our neighbors, 12 of the 50 cities on the list were in Wisconsin. All of them were in the top 20, including Appleton at number one, Sheboygan at number three, Green Bay at number four, Oshkosh-Neenah at number five, Madison at number six, Fond du Lac at number seven, LaCrosse at number nine, Wausau at number 12, Eau Claire at number 13, Milwaukee at number 14, Racine at number 17, and Janesville-Beloit at number 18.

Iowa had three cities in the top 20; Dubuque, Waterloo-Cedar Falls, and Des Moines came in at numbers two, ten, and 19, respectively.

The other non-Wisconsin or Iowa cities in the top 20 were in Massachusetts, California, and Nebraska.

Omaha-Council Bluffs, which straddles the Nebraska Iowa state line, came in at number 24, Cedar Rapids was number 29, Iowa City was number 31, Sioux Falls, South Dakota was 35th, and Rapid City was 37th.

See the full list here.

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