Ah, Consumer Behavior. Forbes took a look at the CDC's 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey (BRFSS) and ranked 33 cities based on their resident's answers to three survey questions:

whether they had at least one drink of alcohol within the past 30 days; whether men had more than two drinks per day or women one drink per day; and whether they had five or more drinks on one occasion. In each case, higher-ranking cities reported larger percentages of their population answering in the affirmative.

Of course, as Forbes notes, a better "hard drinkin'" rank doesn't mean your city is a "den of debauchery," and "just downing a few cold ones doesn't make a person irresponsible." Well, like, duh...

Forbes' 15 Hardest Drinking Cities

• 1. Austin, TX
• 2. Milwaukee, WI
• 3. San Francisco, CA
• 4. Providence, R.I.
• 5. Chicago, IL
• 8. (tie) Seattle, WA, Cleveland, OH, St. Louis, MO
• 9. Boston, MA
• 10. Cincinnati, OH
• 11. Pittsburgh,PA
• 12. Virginia Beach, VA
• 13. Portland, OR
• 14. Jacksonville, FL
• 15. Detroit, MI

America's Hard-Drinking Cities [Forbes]
(Photo: Paxton Holley )