Name: Ly Henry Meach, Student Number: 32492812
Alcohol was introduced to America as early as the early 1600s when settlers from England brought supplies of beer. Its first brewery was constructed in New Amsterdam, which would later become known as New York City (Museum Without Walls, n.d.). George Washington himself, the USA's first President, wrote a recipe titled "To make Small Beer". Beer continues to have a lasting impact on the country's society, and we will analyse the data trends on its consumption from 1977 to 2016. Please note one drink equates to one gallon.
One of four states with no sales tax, New Hampshire has
always had one of the highest alcohol "consumptions" (in reality, it
should be sales) in the states. From 1977 it rose from the
3rd highest alcohol consumption to the 1st place in 2016.
Between 1918 and 1933, Alaska held in place a 'bone dry law',
prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcohol (Haycox, 2019).
Though the law is now out of effect, this hasn't prevented it from
being one of the country's highest alcohol consumers, where it has
steadily remained in the top 10 consumers from 1977 to 2016.
Utah's position as the lowest or second-lowest rank has cemented itself as the state with the lowest alcohol consumer amongst all the United States. It owes this position to decades of strict alcohol laws as well as other factors, such as that a substantial proportion of the state's population is Mormon, a religion which forbids alcohol consumption (Stephenson, 2018).
The above chart shows state comparisons of alcohol consumption
between 1977 and 2016, ignoring the years in between. Through this,
it displays very simply a state's progression and its difference
from then and now.
Nevada has had the most dramatic drop in alcohol consumption,
reducing its consumption by 2.86 from 1977 to 2016. Though not as
dramatic as a progression, Delaware is one of the few states with an
rise in alcohol consumption, rising 0.86 from 1977 to 2016.
The below map shows alcohol consumption by state between 1977 and
2016. Through this, we can see whether alcohol consumption is
correlated to regional differences (e.g. east-coast versus
west-coast), as well as identify outliers across regions (such as
Nevada and Utah).
The map is considerably lighter in the earliest years, but
this is due to the max drinks consumed (per capita) affecting the
legend, causing the majority of states to lighten in saturation.
In the chart above we are able to identify that the
most popular alcoholic beverage of consumption is beer,
followed by spirits, then lastly wine. Though the gap between beer
and spirits is not too small in 2016 (1.15 versus 0.93), beer has
always had a history as the most popular beverage. The intermediate
years between 1977 and 2016 show a much wider gap between beer and
the other alcohol types. It is interesting to see that throughout
the years,
the ranking of these alcohol types have never changed.
On the Alcohol Consumption Scatterplot, we see that the outliers in
terms of state consumption are
Nevada, District of Columbia, and New Hampshire (with
exceptionally higher alcohol consumptions) and Utah (with
exceptionally lower alcohol consumption). The black line represents the average across all states.
The Alcohol Type Consumption by Percentage chart shows once again how dominant beer is as a preference for alcohol consumption. It has taken up more than half the market share across a majority of the years between 1977 and 2016.
A brief insight into the USA's alcohol consumption shows states have vastly different attitudes towards drinking. Many factors influence these attitudes and statistics, whether it be strict alcohol laws such as in Utah, or lax sales tax such as in New Hampshire. Despite being a united country, there is certainly a cultural divide in America's states, identifiable in alcohol consumption.
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