Study Finds Iowa’s Shocking Relationship With Alcohol

In January of 2023, roughly 15% of American adults pledged to cut out alcohol for the entire month, according to the American Association for Cancer Research. For the past decade, Dry January and Sober October have increasingly gained popularity. If you were someone who participated in cutting back on alcohol and completed the challenge, congratulations! That's a huge accomplishment for some people.

Now that February has officially started, many Iowans who quit drinking for the past 31 days will jump back into enjoying the occasional adult beverage. Now that Thanksgiving and Christmas are behind us and Dry January is over, Bet Kentucky wanted to discover which states are most likely to wake up with a hangover.

It appears the state of Iowa really likes its booze.

Most Hungover States in the U.S.

The top 10 most hung-over states, according to Bet Kentucky are;

• 1 - North Dakota
• 2 - Montana
• 3 - South Dakota
• 4 - Vermont
• 5 - New Hampshire
• 6 - Wisconsin (I figured Wisco had to be in the top 10)
• 7 - Alaska
• 8 - Nevada
• 9 - Iowa
• 10 - Oregon

Hangover Index Score

The study was broken down by a combination of Google research, the number of liquor stores/gas stations that sell alcohol, alcohol consumption, admitting to binge drinking, Breweries, and the number of bars per 100,000 people.

Iowa was given a score of 61 for searching for hangover remedies, 22.8% of adults admit to binge drinking, there are roughly 26.6 bars per 100,000 Iowans, and there are roughly 27.3 liquor stores per 100,000 Iowans. There are also 11.7 breweries/wineries/distilleries per 100,000 Iowans.

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Iowa also consumes around 36.4 gallons (per capita) of alcohol. This leads to a hungover index score of 42.9, which places the Hawkeye state as the 9th most hungover state in America. Isn't it kind of worrisome to think about how many Iowans are walking around every day hungover?

If you're someone who completed or even attempted dry January, and you felt it improved your life, keep going! It can be a massive accomplishment and can help lead to an abundance of health benefits. While Iowa is not in the top 5 most hungover states...this is one of those studies Iowa would like to find itself closer to the bottom of the list.

Kind of like this study about which state is most likely to have the most narcissists...Iowa didn't exactly fare well in this research either.