Overview of State Laws Restricting Alcohol Outlet Density in the United States.

Objectives: Complementing the extensive research literature demonstrating that increased alcohol outlet density is associated with excessive alcohol consumption and related harms, this article synthesizes information on the types of alcohol outlet density restrictions in US state-level laws.

Design: Statutes and regulations related to alcohol outlet density in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in effect as of January 1, 2022, were collected using Westlaw. State-level density restrictions were coded according to 4 variables and overlaid with existing research on state-specific local authority to regulate outlet density.