NJ's Drunkest City Is This Dry Shore Town, Data Says

OCEAN CITY, NJ — When you think about drinking heavily in New Jersey, you probably think about the bigger cities that are packed with bars and clubs. If you found out that New Jersey's drunkest city was a shore town, you'd probably think it was somewhere like Seaside Heights or Wildwood that are known for partiers.

But that's not it, according to the data. Travel and lifestyle site 24/7 Tempo took data from the 2023 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program, in order to determine the drunkest areas in each state.

And they admitted that New Jersey's is a bit of an anomaly, because the data named the Ocean City Metropolitan Area as the state's drunkest city.

Yes, that's right. The town founded on Christian principles by Methodist ministers that doesn't sell alcohol has the largest amount of binge drinkers, according to the data.

Related: 'America's Greatest Family Resort': Ocean City's No-Booze Traditions

Now, just because the island doesn't allow the sale of alcohol doesn't mean that there isn't any - a large liquor store is one of the last things you see on the mainland before crossing the 34th Street Bridge.

And technically, the data is for the metropolitan area, which is the entirety of Cape May County, not only Ocean City itself.

The numbers say that 23.3 percent of adults there drink excessively, compared to 18.6 percent statewide. The national average is 19.8 percent.

And 31.7 percent of countywide driving deaths involve alcohol, compared to 22.8 percent statewide.

It's not the first time Ocean City has earned such a distinction. 24/7 Tempo gathered data in 2017 that also showed Ocean City as New Jersey's drunkest city.