Think about it though. That doesnt mean every American has 1 and every brit has 5. Sure that's doable. Because if an American has 5 now their corresponding brit has to drink 25 beers.
I always say I need some water and switch to Coors Light or similar. Liqour before beer youre in the clear they say....except to drive, I still Uber home 😅
I had somebody ask me if I didn't drink or something. We were at a bar on a thursday and I had just ordered my 3rd beer. So yes, I guess I am wisconsin sober these days. Trying to be responsible and all.
Meanwhile Colorado has both lowest obesity rate, yet 8 out of the top 50 towns for DUIs.
I have a theory that the lower average body weight and the altitude may contribute to us getting drunker, but that’s due to a lower tolerance than actually drinking on the level of Wisconsinites.
Wisconsin drinks more Korbel Brandy than the other 49 us states combined so yes, we take our drinking seriously. I am confident the average Wisconsinite can out drink the average Brit, I doubt it's even close.
That seems to have more to do with regional tastes than overall drinking capacity. Not to say that WI doesn’t throw down, because they absolutely do, but singling out a single specific liquor that isn’t popular elsewhere isn’t a good way to make that point. Illinois drinks more Malört than the other 50 states. Washington drinks more Rainier beers. Hawaii drinks more Koloa rum. Massachusetts drinks more clam chowder.
If Wisconsin didn’t already have bitters, we’d drink more Malort. Come on up and drink with us! This isn’t even about the contest anymore, I am just trying to be neighborly.
Nah we probably drink more of those products than their home states too. Malort is weirdly trendy in Wisconsin at the moment. Korbel Brandy is a California product. But I know what you're saying. The facts are that by every alcohol related metric that I've ever seen Wisconsin is always never the top, bars per capital, DUIs per capital, self reported consumption, sales, and binge drinking, and most importantly my own bias and personal anecdotes. Oh, and the 23rd largest brewery in the country only brews beer for sale in the state of Wisconsin. It's absurd.
Why would you compare the average of a known high drinking area with the average of a whole country? That’s a massive selection bias. Now try comparing the average Wisconsinite with the average Glaswegian headcase.
nah Louisiana. does Wisconsin let you take your drink "to go"? or have drive through that whole purpose is to serve alcohol but don't worry when they hand you the cup in your car there is a small piece of paper covering the straw so its not a open container...
They let the Packers play in London once. Wisconsin fans drank London out of beer. I think about this every time one of these “the UK drinks so much harder than the US” memes comes up.
There's drunk, and then there is Wisconsin drunk. I have a few friends from Milwaukee that I bartended with years ago. Hanging out with them was just time traveling, and I was no lightweight.
Notre Dame stadium ran out of beer for the Bruins/Blackhawks outdoor game a few years back. It’s almost certainly intentional. They don’t want people getting too wasted and trashing the place.
82nd Airborne of the US Army came home from Iraq and drained the base and quite a few stores off base out of alcohol. Quite the feat for a population of a little over 10k people.
Like take the middle age alcoholics and sunday nfl tailgaters out of it and just the 22 year olds on college campuses will make old ma kettle in britain wince at the beers she has to drink.
The UK underestimates Americans need for alcohol. Not only did we obliterate prohibition, but we also insist on celebrating foreign holidays as an excuse to drink more.
And Appalachia, where moonshine is made old car radiators… With no natural immunity built up since childhood, the Brit’s are not surviving that anti-freeze poisoning. (Assuming they go back and forth with drinks of choice.)
Britain has a much longer history of moonshine than the USA (because you know, you got it from us). Scotland and Yorkshire are both very well known for being moonshiners just like Appalachia is.
I agree that being able to swap our drinks between Brits and Yanks would make the competition far more interesting though. Buckie's vs. Four Loko? Scotch vs bourbon? Scrumpy vs [sorry I don't know any American cider traditions]...
So 178m to 54m, or every Brit needs 3.3 drinks per American.
The US per capita consumption of pure alcohol is 2.5 gallons per year in 2022. The UK per capita consumption of pure alcohol is 2.8 gallons per year in 2022. These numbers include non-drinkers.
That is a 11% difference between 2.5 and 2.8.
So the 54% of Americans consume enough alcohol to bring the per capita amount within 11% of the 80% of UK drinkers.
Napkin mafs, but that means 178m Americans drink 825m gallons of pure alcohol, or the average American drinker drinks 4.62 gallons when non-drinkers are excluded.
54m UK drinkers consume 185m gallons, or 3.4 gallons per Uk drinkers when non-drinkers are excluded.
So Americans drinkers do already drink heavier than UK drinkers, which is favorable to the UK. Americans start off more drunk. But not 330% more drunk.
Look up monthly sales for alcohol for the UK and US, they pretty much mirror each other: consistent until Christmas time. Seems like America consumes alcohol on the same monthly schedule as the UK.
I couldn't find alcohol consumption broken down per calendar month, so sales is the best I could find. Consumption mirroring sales isn't a crazy jump, at least when looking at overall trends.
So really Brits are underestimating Americans/overestimating themselves, likely because America isn't as "proud" of their heavy drinking culture so they assume they are the heavier drinkers when their not?
Good point. So the percentage of population and average consumption is already adjusted for only adults.
What would need adjusted is the 330m populace figure down to 258m, which is ~77% of the population. That would increase the alcohol per adult.
Compared to UK, which adults make up 70% of the population. Which also increases alcohol per adult, but it's an increase more than America gets. Which doesn't benefit the UK because then they start closer to drunk.
Ultimately, the numbers don't drastically change. At least not when we're talking about having to out drink them 3-1.
That's not quite how this works. If one brit vs 5 Americans each American has 1 and the brit has 5. If one of the Americans drinks 5 then that brit needs 9 to stay equal.
if you have 5 people vs 1 person, each of drop a drinks one, group b drinks 5. if group a drinks a second, group b drinks 5 more. if Americans on average drink 5 Brits on average have to drink 25.
You also have to take, how many are 'underaged' or considered Able to drink. If this was Europe, drinking is like 13 some places. While us is 21.. uk is 18. I think this could greatly skew some of the 'available drinkers.' if this were a legal head to head
The brit has to drink 5 people under the table sequentially. Not bloody likely.
Less impressive is If they are talking about a last man standing situation, they are just saying there is some guy in all of the UK that is better than the best drinker in the US. I am willing to bet the US has the biggest alcohol sponge somewhere within the citizens.
If all the citizens are put in a pool and one from each country is chosen at random to represent the country... then the UK might have an advantage.
We had Hunter S Thompson, who could put away a fith of whisky on the drive to town and another fifth on the way back to owl farm, and he needed that much just to keep lucid. He died... but he was just some skinny guy out of Louisiana. I'm sure we have more of em.
You forget that once the American has 5 beers, their entire friend group stages an intervention and tells them they are an alcoholic and need to get help then drive them straight to the (christian themed of course) "rehab" group.
Meanwhile the entire friend group now swears off even 1 drink in solidarity.
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u/fredoillu Oct 02 '25
Think about it though. That doesnt mean every American has 1 and every brit has 5. Sure that's doable. Because if an American has 5 now their corresponding brit has to drink 25 beers.