America's Drunkest Cities
Forbes.com reports on the "drunkeness" rankings of 35 metropolitan areas within the United States. Rankings were based on state laws, number of drinkers, number of heavy drinkers, number of binge drinkers, and the extent of alcoholism.
The top five cities are:
1. Milwaukee
2. Minneapolis-St. Paul
3. Columbus, OH
4. Boston
5. Austin, TX
Hmmm...is this something that Milwaukee can be proud of? (Should Columbus be worried that it is only ranked #3? After all, Columbus has a reputation to uphold now that OSU's football team is the preseason #1 ranked team in country.)
How much weight do you give to such rankings? Take a look at the methodology behind the rankings and suggest an alternative system if you're not satisfied with the approach of Forbes.com.
Thanks to Division of Labour for the tip.
6 comments:
This article does not sit right with me and I think it is because there are too many unanswered questions. How many people actually did the survey? How many men? How many women? How many people attended the alcoholism meetings? Is there a reasonable explanation to why there are so many meetings in different places besides too much drunkenness? Was this a random sample? This are all factors that need to be considered and I feel like the article creates more questions than anything else. If I were doing this study I would include the information that was collected. Including the information with the article would make the article more reliable than it does now. I would just like to see more information.
I would agree that the survey seems less based on actual facts and more based on random ( possibly not verifible) that can be subjective. For instance, how much weight was put on the MADD rankings/grades? And how exactly was the calculations done, who addede up the values of the chosen cities, was it inside the company or and outside source? Also the article does not give any judgement as how the "alcolism" effects ( positively or negatively) the cities? What is the reason this survey was undertaken? The questions seem to outnumber the data given in the article, thus I think I may miss the point.
I do not think that this survey is an accurate one. First of all, only 35 cities were surveyed, a very small sample. Also, each level of drinker weighs the same in the final rankings. Heavier drinkers count the same as people who rarely drink. To make this a more accurate sampling, I think more cities should be used and heavier drinkers need to have more influence.
I believe their methodology was in the right place (number of cities, and what they surveyed), but I would have liked to have seen more information. I think that for a topic as important as alcohol consumption more conclusive evidence is required, or at least seeing some statistics. For example, I would like to see a graph or chart of the comparisons for each city. Perhaps we could add some more factors such as price of alcohol, or occupations. This seems to be an uncomplete study that needs a little work. I am in no way prepared to accept it as correct.
The methodology behind this article is a little off. First, reading from the "methodology" link, I noticed that the people at Forbes included "Alcoholism" in determining how drunk a city is. They ranked the cities from the statistics if the number of Alcoholic Anonymous meetings there were in that city. Wouldn't this suggest that that city is LESS drunk? People are trying to end their drinking habits, not the opposite!
Also, wouldn't it be easier in deciding which city is "America's Drunkest City," if one could discover the amount of beer sold per capita? In other words... how many beers is the average person in that city drinking?
The study is misleading because the information, statistics, etc. that were provided, does not relate to the study at all.
This survey isn't set up right. First off, they should have taken a look at all cities over a certain population. Next Looking at the cities on this survey, Columbus, OH and Austin, Tx are on their for the simple fact that there are 50,000 college students in each town 9 months out of the year. Then you can take a look at Milwaukee and they have the largest beer manufacturer in the US. After looking at the other comments on this website, I have to agree with Jason Baumler when he said that the survey needs to include more cities, and the amount of drinking should also have an influence. And to add to his point I think they should not include college students because they are not full time residents of the city they represent
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