Forbes.com ranks Austin year's hardest-drinking city

Austin may be the hardest-drinking city in America.

In 2006, Forbes.com declared Austin the fifth hardest-drinking city in the U.S., but more recent statistics suggest that Austin has surpassed itself. The Web site used information compiled from various governmental and private agencies to determine that Austin is 2008's hardest-drinking city.

Sixty-one percent of Austin's adult residents said they had at least one alcoholic drink in the 30 days preceeding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey, one of the surveys used by Forbes.com. Almost 21 percent of those surveyed in 2007 said they had participated in binge drinking, or had more than five drinks on one occasion at least once during the 30 days.

Many experts contribute Forbes' ranking to Austin's large youth population.

"Austin is unique because we have an active downtown community," said Kevin Prince, a health education coordinator for University Health Services. "There's a lot of tourism and cultural events and businesses downtown, so it's an exciting atmosphere. Combine that with the 56,000 students at UT, not to mention smaller universities in the area and Texas State, and there will obviously be a lot of alcohol consumption."

The American Psychiatric Association identifies young adults ages 18 to 25 as having the highest rates of binge drinking.

According to the 2008 Princeton Review, UT has the 14th largest beer-drinking population and 16th largest population of students who study the least. The University was ranked by the review as the eighth largest party school in the nation.

The biggest problem with student drinking is that people are unwilling to call the police when someone needs help for fear of legal retribution, Prince said. He said setting limits and being educated about alcohol and drug consumption are important steps in preventing alcohol-related injuries.

For the same reason, surveys are not the most reliable sources of information about illicit behavior, said UT psychology professor James Pennebaker.

"People in Austin may just be more honest than people in other places," Pennebaker said. "At A&M, where drinking is frowned upon, people might lie in a survey about how much they drink."

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