Montana leads nation in per capita bar spending

By dividing the revenue for alcohol sales at drinking establishments by the state’s population, it works out to a figure of $258. That’s what every man, woman and child in the state would have spent in drinking establishments in 2002 if every man, woman and child in the state drank. Of course, not every man or woman, and hopefully none of the children, spent that amount in bars, which means some of us spent a lot more than $258.

The national average for per-capita spending at drinking establishments, by the way, was just $52. Forty-three states didn’t even reach triple digits.

Only Montana, Nevada, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Wisconsin were over $100 in per-capita spending.

The number of drinking establishments Montanans have to choose from may have something to do with the high spending. While only six states have fewer people than Montana, 26 of them have fewer drinking establishments. States with millions more people, such as Georgia and North Carolina, had fewer than Montana’s 632 drinking establishments in 2002.