The annual Bockfest Photo: Steve Hampton

Cincinnati knows how to party — at least according to a new study.

While you may initially think of Los Angeles, New Orleans or Las Vegas as the best places for good, old-fashioned debauchery and a killer hangover the next day, don’t discount the Midwest, said this study from betsperts.com. Analysts looked at several point of data to figure out which cities are the party capitals of the United States, and not only did Cincinnati make the cut, we placed third behind St. Louis (No. 1) and Pittsburgh.

Betsperts.com analysts looked at four key metrics to create their rankings: nightlife attractions per 100,000 people, taxi fare per mile, Airbnb average daily rates and casinos per 100,000 people. They reviewed the 50 hardest-partying cities from BestLife (where Cincinnati ranked 25th) and then put the data of each metric into a weighted table to give each a normalized score out of 10.

Cincinnati had 22.4 nightlife attractions per 100,000 people, $1.98 taxi fare per mile, average daily Airbnb rate of $159 and one casino, giving it a totaled score of 7.98/10. It ranked ninth out of the 50 cities for nightlife and tied for second with Pittsburgh and Baton Rouge for cheapest taxi fare.

But what really set Cincinnati apart, according to betsperts.com, was our beer scene.

“Cincinnati is no stranger to beer, so much so that it became known as the ‘beer capital of the world’. The Ohio city still has over 50 breweries which you can explore in preparation for the evening ahead,” the website wrote.

Let’s not forget Cincinnati’s love of big festivals like Oktoberfest (the biggest in the United States), as well as the brew-and-sausage-fueled bacchanalian Bockfest. (We may also be considered a little dirty-minded with our affinity for chili-slathered hot dogs stuck into buns and naming dishes “3-Ways,” but that’s probably a topic for another study.)

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This article appears in Feb 22 – Mar 7, 2023.

Katherine Barrier is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s journalism program and has nearly 10 years of experience reporting local and national news as a digital journalist. At CityBeat, she...