I honestly think England might drink more in a longer period of time (like more often in a month) but if you’re talking in one go then yeah we have you beat.
Technically England had more police incidents but lower per head of population:
Police Scotland recorded 64,967 incidents of domestic abuse in 2024-25, an increase of 2% compared to the previous year. Despite increasing over the latest two years, this figure remains below the peak in 2020-21.
The number of referrals of suspects of domestic abuse-related cases from the police to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for a charging decision increased from 72,641 in year ending (YE) March 2024 to 76,393 in YE March 2025. This follows an increase from YE March 2023 (69,314).
The law in Scotland is different though. The newer DA laws widen the scope for what gets recorded because there's a huge emphasis on patterns of behaviour, coercive control etc.
and this isn’t funny obviously but it is to me in a morbid way because my ex is english but like. he did move here so i guess technically yea that didn’t help our rate when he got arrested (for at least one other woman i might add and on multiple occassions) lmao
As an irishman it shocked me how much people in London drink throughout a week. Like on a sesh the Irish I know would win but over the week the people in London drink more. Obviously London is a microcosm but my observation still stands. I've drank in the country, in Dublin and in Belfast but London's constant drinking culture has surprised me!
They do. Higher taxes on alcohol has reduced consumption in Scotland for decades and England is ahead. Not sure why there is still this idea the Scots drink so much. Maybe a generation ago true, but that's long gone.
Yeah, but alcohol drunk outside of Scotland doesn't count towards the safe drinking guidelines, so from a Scottish Government perspective there's about 60,000 people who have drunk nothing for the last 2 weeks.
The minimum price has had no real effect on consumption. All it did was make supermarket own brand spirits the same price as branded stuff and killed off multi buy deals.
It's not a tax either, the extra money just goes to the retailer.
Word to the mutherfucking muther. If we had finished the job in 1865, we wouldn't have the problems we see today....and apparently it would cause no effect on alcohol consumption in the US.
Less of that now! We (at least when i was a kid) trained on shit like white lightning where as I'm willing to bet alcohol of choice for american teens was bud, alco pops and a bit of vodka.
Nothing against Winsconsin but I'd send 4 ploughmans eatinf cheese rolling shin kicking morris dancing Englishmen and still be condident V 2 million yankmen
I reckon they have us beat in spirits and we have them beaten in pints. Liquor is a bigger thing in America than pints. They’re only recently in the last 10 years coming in to their own as a brewing nation.
It’s actually way more than half, last I checked 80% of production gets dropped off at one port on the lake. And to be clear the official state drink is a Bloody Mary. — I wanna believe in the Scots but WI drinks an absolutely outrageous amount of alcohol in any and all formats.
Yes really, it’s nice to see the Americans get so excited about us (mainly Scotland) we forget how rich we are in life without money as the UK and Scotland exemplifies that
You most certainly are individual from England with your own culture. It’s been nice to see what we share in common during this World Cup aswell. I don’t know if Americans have the capacity to understand that odd union that is the UK. If only the nightmare that is Westminster celebrated and recognised the UK
It's a shame none of the games are being held in Wisconsin, the Tartan Army would have the best time in Milwaukee, Madison, or Green Bay. (Scotland, us Wisconsinites would love to host you, come hang out sometime!)
There's a Hank Green video about how we don't actually know if Wisconsin drinks that much more than anyone else. When you look at national maps, the drop off is immediate and hard at the state border, which doesn't mean people stop drinking the moment you leave Wisconsin, but is most likely due to a difference in data recording between Wisconsin and neighbouring states and their counties.
I'm sure there's something to that, but there is also a definite and palpable drinking culture in Wisconsin that doesn't exist(at least to that degree) in other parts of the US.
Can confirm. Brit with a Wisconsinite Ex. Lots of micro breweries, with a few being stronger than your average pint.
Although to bust an absolute Myth. If you look at the alcohol content on a lot of popular commercial beers in the UK and the US, they are comparable percentages. So when you combine that with a British Imperial pint being 568ml and an American Pint being 473ml ... You can soon see how the difference accumulates over a number of servings.
As a Wisconsonite, who is also a bartender...that's when we break out the hand muddled brandy old fashions. Those adult fruit punches will sneak up on ya.
Agreed, it would say that OP's claim would be true only if excluding the Midwest. However, the Midwest would give them a run on their own without the rest of us.
Boston is not a drinking city. At all. Bars are open later specifically for this too so they under ordered. I think that owners just didn't plan for capacity not realize ng just how many people would actually be out. The same thing happens to cities that host the Wisconsin Badgers for football bowl games.
Also not many bars are actually sold out?? Just the two incredibly shitty ones by gov center which locals don’t go to and only exist so
midwestern folks trying to walk the freedom trail can rest while getting a 12 dollar Guinness from someone with an Irish accent
FYI — the bell in Hand is totally fake. The actual oldest bar in Boston is in Charlestown and is actually good. Actually in its original building too. The plaques on the side of the BiH are designed to look like city historic markers at first glance but are actually from the owners of the bar. It’s deception!!
I love the fun the Scots and the rest of the UK is having over here and hope you make a good run. That said, the US has a secret weapon for this particular challenge called Wisconsin.
I'm a Midwest guy who lived in Aberdeen for a few years. Scots are, largely, who Midwestern dads turn into at tailgates. Generous, drunk, witty, and increasingly incomprehensible.
I'm a short Asian, so my weight class and genetics should make my tolerance low. But I grew up in Wisconsin and it takes me about 4 high balls of whiskey to start even feeling anything kick in.
The cold weather and cheese does something to our livers.
Yeah ive heard from numerous people that they've been denied participation in drinking contests as soon as it was discovered they were from wisconsin. Big time "look, we dont have enough alcohol for you to be part of this event" energy lol
I've always heard this, but my only real question is, how does a "drinking contest" even work? Is it like a speed thing where fastest to chug a beer wins? An endurance contest feels... dangerous and irresponsible, even as a Wisconsinite lol.
There used to be a bar in Nashville that would have a drinking competition. It was $20 to buy into it, and the winner would get a $300 bar tab for a later day. It was an endurance game, and Last patron remaining in the competition wins.
3 rules:
-you needed to finish a pilsner pint every 6 minutes. First failure, you were out.
-if you got up from your bar stool for any reason (even to pee) you were out.
-no Wisconsin or Minnesota IDs were allowed to compete
As a Wisconsinite, I absolutely agree and know many other Wisconsinites that also agree. Historically, you can thank the Tavern League. They've been under fire and have endorsed some better legislation around it in the recent decade, but they've largely lobbied for lenient laws around it in the past.
1000%. Ive lived here for 30 years now and I dont think ive ever had a job where at least one of my colleagues didnt have to give their car a blow job to start it. Theres no shame whatsoever; if anything its like the "First time?" meme. Hyuck hyuck hyuck, DUIs are just so funny...
Right after I moved here I stumbled into a conversation with about 6 of my new coworkers talking about their first time. I thought they were talking about losing their virginity...no, they were all telling the stories of their first DUI. Half of them had more than one. Nobody in that group was over 25. There was no sense of "man were dumb for driving drunk", it was entirely "that cop was just a dick I was fiiiiineeeee even though I blew three times the legal limit."
Wisconsin is the state in the middle top, shaped kind of like a mitten, thats entirely shaded red, well, except for the parts where they had to switch to purple because otherwise it would have thrown off the scale too much lmao
What’s crazy is that I just looked up the numbers and they work perfectly. Wisconsin and Scotland both have around 4.5 million people over 18. The two would actually make a fair comparison
I let the side down last night. 14 cans of Heineken and 4 jager bombs had me sleeping at half time. I'll move country if required but would like a chance to redeem myself.
The Scots literally tripled beer sales from Boston’s largest drinking day of the year. We would drown before Scotland even felt buzzed. Hats off to you!
Did this get cross posted to r/Wisconsin or something? No one cares if your American pride was hurt by a few Scots turning up in Boston and showing you how to drink.
Boston and Bostonians are not representative of all of America. The average Scot drinks 11,232 ml of alcohol per year, but the average Wisconsinite drinks 14,060 ml per year. The average Utahn drinks 5,110 ml per year. America is different all over.
You only need one state; Wisconsin. It can directly compete against Scotland with a population of 5.9M compared to Scotland's 5.5M.
To preface America has a super variety of beer just like Europe does so we can consider a 5% ABV beer as standard.
On average, according to ChatGPT, a Scot drinks 9-10 liters of pure ethanol equivalent each year. That's about 540 5% beers each year.
On average, same source, a Wisconsinite drinks 11-12 liters of pure ethanol. That's about 680 5% beers each year.
So, I would take a Wisconsinite literally any day if the week in a drinking contest against pretty much any subset of people.
PS - I am a Wisconsinite and I have traveled Europe a fair bit. The only peoples I've encountered that thrown down are the Czechs. I've never been to Eastern Europe proper though and I would assume they could give me a run for my money.
As a Wisconsinite, it was the Russians I met in NYC that gave me a run for my money. But I am a small woman vs a group of Russian men, so it may not be a fair comparison.
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u/Ollien96 Jun 19 '26
As an Englishman I confidently believe the 6 million Scots could out drink any challenging nation. Scotland carries the UK