States that Drink the Most Wine

The article in VINEPAIR States that Drink the Most Wine:, caught my eye this morning. It is kind of cool because it is a map that is color coded that lists the states: The States That Drink the Most Wine Per Gallon

If you live in California, Florida, New York, Texas, or Illinois you drink the most wine per gallon. The States That Drink the Most Wine Per Capita

If you live in Idaho, Washington, D.C., New Hampshire, New Mexico or Vermont, you're buying a lot of wine. My husband raised many questions about this article I was siting, so I went to the original source, put out by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse SURVEILLANCE REPORT #110. Here is what I learned.
The report contain the following consumption trends from 1977-2016.

• Per capita consumption of ethanol from all alcoholic beverages combined in 2016 was 2.35 gallons, representing a 0.9 percent increase from 2.33 gallons in 2015.
• Between 2015 and 2016, changes in overall per capita consumption of ethanol included increases in 33 States, decreases in 12 States, and no changes in 5 States and the District of Columbia.
• Analysis of overall per capita alcohol consumption by U.S. Census region between 2015 and 2016 indicated an increase of 1.3 percent in the Northeast, 0.4 percent in the Midwest, 1.3 percent in the South, and 1.7 percent in the West.
• Healthy People 2020 set the national objective for per capita annual alcohol consumption at no more than 2.1 gallons.

Did you know that there is an initiative called Healthy People 2020? Healthy People, is a program initiated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that establishes benchmarks to promote longer and higher-quality lives for Americans. Here is the goal of the program: The program's objective for alcohol consumption is to reduce the national per capita annual alcohol consumption level by 10 percent from the 2007 baseline value of 2.3 gallons per year to no more than 2.1 gallons per year by 2020.
If you assume that the "standard drink" in the United States contains 0.6 fluid ounces of ethanol, the target per capita consumption level of 2.1 gallons of ethanol equates to approximately an average of 448 standard drinks. That's a lot of drinking IMHO, more than a glass of wine a day, every day of the year.
I think I can meet the goal of Healthy People 2020.
If you are interested in learning more details about this study, please check out to the following reference.
Reference:
1. Sarah P. Haughwout, M.P.H., Megan E. Slater, Ph.D., National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse SURVEILLANCE REPORT #110, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, April 2018.