And the Drunkest City in Oregon Is…

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Every Oregon city is famous for something. Portland is known for its thriving food and music scenes, Salem is the state’s capital, and Ashland packs an internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. But when it comes to the drunkest city in Oregon, you might be surprised who tops the list. It’s not Portland, despite us having quite the bar scene, and it’s not Eugene, despite the university Greek life.
The drunkest city in Oregon is (gulp) Bend.
This is not a positive designation. Each year, 24/7 Wall St. analyzes binge drinking data list from the University of Wisconsin’s County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. They found that 22.6 percent of adults in Bend drink excessively—above the national average of 19.8 percent and that of countywide driving deaths, 27 percent involve alcohol, which is just north of the US average. These figures landed Bend at 16 on the list of 50 cities.
If you’re wondering about our neighboring states, Bellingham took the prize for Washington, and Santa Rosa-Petaluma tops the list in California. But neither of those states ranks in the top half of US states for drinking. An analysis released earlier this year found Oregon to be the 15th drunkest state, in a study that overall found heavy drinking to correlate with colder climates. Wisconsin, Illinois, Montana, and Dakotas, we see you.