Maryland's Drunkest Metro: Columbia-Baltimore-Towson

A new survey from the Wall Street Journal proclaims the Columbia-Baltimore-Towson metro area as the “drunkest” region in Maryland.

The journal used data about alcohol consumption and drunk driving fatalities to compile its rankings.

In the Columbia-Baltimore-Towson region, approximately 17.4 percent of the population reported heavy drinking, which the survey defines as at least eight drinks for women and 15 for men each week, based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention standards.

The Columbia-Baltimore-Towson region’s alcohol consumption is slightly higher than that of Maryland as a whole.

Statewide, an average of 15.4 percent of citizens reported heavy drinking, according to the survey.

The Wall Street Journal notes that the region is not that badly off compared with the rest of the country; it ranks 138th among all U.S. metro areas in its alcohol abuse, the journal reports.

Drunk-related driving fatalities are above the national average in the Towson-Baltimore-Columbia metro area as well.

Nationally, the percentage of alcohol-related fatalities is 31 percent.

In Columbia-Baltimore-Towson, 33.4 percent of fatal crashes involve alcohol, according to the survey.

In Howard County, the percentage is even higher; approximately 38 percent of driving deaths involved alcohol-impaired driving, according to the County Health Rankings. The Wall Street Journal obtained its data from these rankings, which the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation put together.

Read more from the Wall Street Journal’s survey.

Other organizations have come up with their own gauges for drunkenness, including a recent somewhat subjective survey by the data compilers at RoadSnacks, which found Annapolis was the “drunkest” town in Maryland, based on its divorce rate, number of liquor stores, drinking discussions and divorce rate.

Related: The 100 ‘Drunkest’ Towns in Maryland