Green Bay has been named the drunkest city in America for 2026, with roughly 27% of its adult population reporting excessive drinking and about half of its driving deaths involving alcohol. The Wisconsin metro topped a new national ranking that pulled together nearly 400 places across the country, and it wasn't close — the state claimed most of the top 20 spots on the list.
The ranking comes from 24/7 Wall St., which crafted the 2026 list of the drunkest cities in the country using factors including the number of restaurants and bars in each metro, driving deaths involving alcohol, median household income, and the share of adults who drink to excess, according to KDHL Radio. Green Bay's showing at number one wasn't a fluke of geography — the outlet's report found the Midwest overall posts the highest excessive drinking rates in the nation, while southern states sit at the bottom of the list.
Wisconsin's grip on the rankings goes well beyond Green Bay. Eau Claire came in at number two, Appleton at number three, and Madison at number four. Oshkosh/Neenah landed at number six, Wausau at number nine, and La Crosse-Onalaska at number ten. Mankato — the lone non-Wisconsin entry among the state's cluster — sits just outside at number eleven, followed by Fond du Lac at twelve, Sheboygan at fifteen, and Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis rounding out the top twenty at number twenty.
Where the Rankings Get Their Numbers
The underlying data for lists like this one traces back to County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a joint project of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that compiles self-reported survey responses collected through the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, according to Wisconsin Watch. That self-reported survey data lines up with harder numbers, too — federal sales and shipment figures tracked by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism place Wisconsin 8th highest among all states in total per-capita alcohol consumption, the outlet's report notes.
Public health researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have found that every single county in the state exceeds the national average for adult excessive alcohol consumption, underscoring that the state's drinking habits aren't confined to a handful of headline-grabbing metros. A separate analysis of county health metrics found that counties hosting University of Wisconsin System campuses average 24.1% heavy or binge drinking, compared with 22.4% in counties without a UW campus, according to WisContext — a pattern that helps explain why college towns like Madison, Eau Claire and La Crosse consistently show up near the top of national drinking lists.
Why Wisconsin Keeps Topping These Lists
Part of the answer lies in state law and tax policy. Wisconsin is the only state in the country where a first-offense drunk driving charge is treated as a non-criminal civil forfeiture rather than a criminal misdemeanor, typically resulting in fines between $150 and $300 plus surcharges and a license revocation, with no jail time unless factors like injury or a minor passenger are involved. Wisconsin also keeps some of the lowest alcohol taxes in the nation, with a beer excise tax of just 6 cents per gallon — tied with Missouri for second-lowest behind only Wyoming — and a spirits tax that ranks among the 10 lowest nationally, according to the Badger Institute.
Even as overall drinking habits shift, the intensity hasn't eased up. An analysis of NIAAA data found that while the total volume of alcohol consumed per adult in Wisconsin fell 13% between 2012 and 2022, per-capita distilled spirits consumption actually rose 32% over that same period, climbing to 4.33 gallons per person, according to Urban Milwaukee. That shift means Wisconsinites are, on average, drinking less total liquid but reaching for stronger stuff than they were a decade ago.
The Public Health and Economic Toll
The CDC defines excessive drinking as binge drinking — four or more drinks per occasion for women, five or more for men — or heavy drinking of eight or more drinks per week for women and 15 or more for men, and estimates that excessive alcohol use costs the U.S. economy $249 billion annually. Nationally, the CDC reports that excessive alcohol consumption contributes to more than 140,000 deaths each year, making it the country's third leading preventable cause of death.
The toll shows up in Wisconsin's own books, too. State public health data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services estimates binge drinking alone costs the state nearly $4 billion each year, or roughly $700 per resident, with lost workplace productivity accounting for more than two-thirds of that economic strain. For Green Bay and the string of Wisconsin metros filling out this year's rankings, that price tag adds a sobering counterweight to a list that, on its surface, reads like a punchline about a state's drinking culture.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)