Dry States 2026

Seventeen states do not permit local governments to ban alcohol sales: Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming.

In these states, alcohol sales are governed at the state level. Local governments may regulate hours, location, density of licenses, or other conditions, but they cannot impose outright prohibition. NABCA describes these as states that have preempted local option authority over alcohol prohibition.

Pennsylvania is a partial exception: it has no county-level dry option, but roughly 675 of the state's 2,560 municipalities were at least partially dry as of 2025 through municipal licensing restrictions, meaning they could restrict the type or density of licenses rather than ban sales entirely. Utah is wet statewide, but all alcohol sales flow through the state-run Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC).

A dry county is a county, or comparable local jurisdiction, where the sale of alcohol is prohibited by local law. Dry counties exist because of local option laws, which allow local governments to decide whether alcohol sales will be permitted within their boundaries. The authority for local option comes from state law: if the state does not grant this power, localities cannot exercise it.

Dry status can cover all alcohol sales or only some types. A county might be dry for off-premise sales (liquor stores, grocery stores) but allow on-premise sales (bars, restaurants). These partial restrictions create what is sometimes called a moist county: not fully wet and not fully dry.

The term 'dry state' is sometimes used loosely to describe states with many dry local areas, but no U.S. state is fully dry in 2026. Every state permits alcohol sales somewhere within its borders.

NABCA distinguishes three main categories of local alcohol jurisdiction. A wet jurisdiction permits both on-premise sales (bars, restaurants) and off-premise sales (retail stores). A dry jurisdiction prohibits both. A moist jurisdiction, sometimes called partially dry, allows some sales but not all, such as allowing restaurants to serve drinks but prohibiting liquor store sales.

Moist counties are common in the South. In Georgia and North Carolina, many counties that have voted against full alcohol sales still allow limited restaurant or hotel service. In Tennessee, the rules can vary by city within a county; Nashville sits in a county with both wet and dry precincts depending on city limits.

A county labeled 'dry' in a general summary may still allow you to order a drink at a restaurant. Checking the specific local rules, not just the county name, gives the accurate picture.