I'm sure that the moment you read the headline you thought to yourself "Wow, Iowa. You need to slow down on the drinking because you're embarrassing yourself."

Well, you're wrong.

Not about Iowa embarrassing itself, because I'm sure that happens. You'd be wrong in thinking that Iowa is the Illinois neighbor with 41 of the 50 drunkest counties in America. Before you run around casting aspersions at Illinois' neighboring states to the east, west, and south, I should give you a small clue as to which state we're talking about:

This state wants to have it's own official state cocktail, which is something that no other state has or has even proposed doing.

If that didn't help, here's another clue:

Wisconsin welcomes you sign at he state border
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By Almost Unanimous Consensus, Wisconsin Is The Drunkest State In America, But Another Illinois Next-Door-Neighbor Comes In At Number-Two

I'm looking at study after study that puts Wisconsin as the state with the most overall consumption of alcohol. A piece by 247WallSt.com says that  25.2% of Wisconsin adults drink heavily, which is 6% more than the national average. 35% of fatal car accidents are alcohol-related, a number that's 9% higher than the national average.

Surprisingly enough, Iowa comes in at number-two, where the percentage of adults who drink heavily is 24.9%, just a shade below Wisconsin.

Here in Illinois, we're doing better (or worse, depending on your drinking perspective) than at least two of our neighboring states. Illinois comes in at #9 on the list of drunkest states with 22.9% of adults drinking heavily.

Vector illustration of a red, white and blue Wisconsin map road sign.
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Shot of an overweight man celebrating while holding a pint of beer
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The Study Of The Drunkest States In America Also Points Out That 82% Of The Nation's 50 Drunkest Counties Just Happen To Be Behind The Cheddar Curtain

You may be thinking that those 41 Wisconsin counties are all drinking about the same amount, but there is one Wisconsin county that outdrinks all the rest, according to a piece at Mashed.com.

That county would be Outagamie County (Appleton is the county seat), in the northeast part of the state, where thirty-one percent of adults there binge drink or drink heavily, compared to the United States national average of 19.8%.

What Are the Signature Drinks From Every State?

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Gallery Credit: Angela Underwood

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