DRINKING -- SURVEY RESULTS

Austin named hardest-drinking city in U.S. by Forbes magazine

List uses CDC data on 'behavioral risk' factors

By Addie Broyles
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, August 09, 2008

Feeling tipsy?

You're not alone, according to Forbes magazine, which this week said that Austin might be the hardest-drinking city in America.

Forbes, which releases lifestyle rankings several times a year, used data from a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey to assess Austin residents' affinity for alcohol. The CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey last year found that 61.5 percent of residents said they had had at least one drink in the past 30 days.

But it was the number of drinks per day that put Austin at the top of — or perhaps the bottom of — the bar. Nearly 9 percent of people surveyed said they drank daily. For men, two drinks a day was considered daily alcohol consumption in the survey. For women, it was one.

Milwaukee came in at No. 2 overall and was followed by San Francisco; Providence, R.I.; and Chicago.

Brandi Homann, a manager at Opal Divine's Freehouse on West Sixth Street, said the ranking isn't surprising. "If it's accurate, it's probably just because it's a college party town with UT and all. And then there's Sixth Street."

In the CDC survey, about 20 percent of adults in Austin admitted to binge drinking, or having at least five drinks in one sitting.

The University of Texas, like most major universities in the U.S., has been battling binge drinking problems for decades. Forbes named UT the No. 1 party school in 2006.

Though Austin is a college town, Forbes did not mention that in its recent ranking.

"It's important for people to understand that UT students make up 5 percent of Austin's population when they are all here," said Sandi Cleveland, a manager at the Health Promotion and Resource Center, which is part of University Health Services.

UT participates in a survey similar to the one conducted by the CDC in which students are asked about their drinking habits. In last year's survey, about 72 percent said they had consumed an alcoholic drink in the past 30 days, Cleveland said. Thirty-four percent said they had consumed more than five alcoholic drinks on one occasion.

"We work with freshmen at orientation to talk about how students can avoid dangers of alcohol abuse, how to recognize alcohol poisoning," she said.

Cleveland said 35 percent of first-year students don't drink any alcohol.

abroyles@statesman.com; 912-2504