Last updated: October 2026
The Census Bureau says Price County has five bars. We can name twenty-six of them.
That gap is not a data error, and it matters more than the ranking everybody quotes. The federal count that produced Price County’s famous 63rd place finish only tallies drinking places with paid employees, so the owner-run taverns that make up most of this county never enter the arithmetic. Measure the county by ground instead of by people and a different fact falls out: 1,254 square miles of land, five census bars, one bar for every 250.8 square miles.
Quick Answer: Price County covers 1,254.06 square miles of land, more than Rhode Island, and ranks first of the 71 Wisconsin counties that report at least one drinking place, at 250.8 square miles per bar against a statewide figure of 19.8. The same county ranks 63rd of those 71 for bars per resident at 3.55 per 10,000 people. Even counting all 26 bars in our own directory instead of the census’s five, Price County sits at 48.2 square miles per bar, still 2.4 times the state average. Iron County, the state’s most bar-dense county per person at 24.45 per 10,000, falls to 15th on this measure.
How Many Bars Does Price County Actually Have?
Two honest answers, and they differ by a factor of five. The Census Bureau’s 2022 County Business Patterns reports 5 drinking places in Price County under NAICS 722410. Our own business directory, built from Google Places in July 2026, files 26 businesses in Price County under Bars and Nightlife.
| Measure | Census count | Our directory count |
|---|---|---|
| Establishments | 5 | 26 |
| Land per bar | 250.8 sq mi | 48.2 sq mi |
| Residents per bar | 2,813 | 541 |
| Bars per 10,000 residents | 3.55 | 18.5 |
| Rank by residents per bar | 63rd of 71 | not ranked, see note |
| Rank by land per bar | 1st of 71 | not ranked, see note |
Neither number is wrong. They answer different questions. The census counts employers with payroll, and our directory counts every business presenting itself as a tavern. A five-establishment payroll file and a hand-built map of the county will never agree.
One county is missing from both federal rankings below. Menominee County, 4,279 people, reports no drinking place in the 2022 series, so it has no place on either ranking here. Every ranking here covers the 71 counties that report at least one.
We list the directory figure without a rank because we only built that directory for Price County. Ranking it against 70 counties still carrying census counts would compare one hand-counted map to seventy payroll files.
What Counts as a Bar in the Federal Data
County Business Patterns is an annual payroll-based series, which means an establishment appears only if it has at least one paid employee on the payroll during the survey year. A tavern where the owner bartends six nights a week and nobody else draws a paycheck does not show up. Neither does a seasonal roadhouse that hires summer help but files no first-quarter wages.
Why the Payroll Rule Cuts Deepest Up Here
Compare the two counts town by town and the shape of the miss becomes obvious. Our directory lists four bar listings in Butternut, seven in Park Falls, three in Phillips, and single entries in Catawba, Fifield, Ogema, Tripoli, Prentice, and Agenda.
Six more carry a Price County (Unincorporated) label instead of a town name. All six take a Phillips mailing address:
- Rock Garden Tavern and Johns 3 Mile Corner Bar, both on State Highway 13
- Timbers Roadhouse on County Road H
- Midway Tavern and Cabins on Little Chicago Road
- Flyway Bar and Grill on East Wilson Flowage Road
- Southfork on County Road F
Five census establishments cannot cover that map. The federal figure is a payroll statistic, not a head count of taverns, and the difference between five and twenty-six is the county’s actual bar economy.
What Does 250.8 Square Miles Per Bar Look Like on the Ground?
Start with the size of the place. Price County’s 1,254.06 square miles of dry land, from the Census Bureau’s 2024 Gazetteer, is 21% larger than the 1,033.89 square miles of land in Rhode Island. That is one county, five bars, and more ground than a New England state.
Prentice to Butternut is 38.3 miles and a full hour by road. Prentice to Park Falls is 31.8 miles and 49 minutes.
Spread the five census bars evenly across the county and each one anchors a patch of ground 15.8 miles on a side. Statewide that same patch is 4.45 miles square. In Milwaukee County it is 0.88 miles, which is 4,630 feet between one front door and the next.
How Far Is the Next Bar From Our Door?
We routed all seven from 1117 Railroad Avenue in Prentice with OSRM on October 29, 2026. These are the nearest towns around us by road, whatever they pour.
| Town | Miles | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Ogema | 8.5 | 14 |
| Catawba | 12.6 | 18 |
| Phillips | 13.6 | 21 |
| Kennan | 15.7 | 23 |
| Spirit | 17.8 | 30 |
| Fifield | 27.6 | 42 |
| Park Falls | 31.8 | 49 |
The Last Call Version
Ogema sits fourteen minutes from our door. Catawba is eighteen. Neither is a walk home. The real constraint in a county this size is not how far the next bar is. It is who drives. Every tavern here runs on designated drivers and on the understanding that the person behind the wheel at closing time has had nothing.
Why Does Price County Rank 63rd by Population and 1st by Land?
Because the two denominators move in opposite directions. Population density drives the first measure and land area drives the second.
Price County has 14,066 residents spread over those 1,254 square miles, which works out to 11.2 people per square mile. Milwaukee County has 933,063 people in 241 square miles, or 3,864 per square mile. Divide five bars into the first number and you get 2,813 residents per bar. Divide 314 bars into the second and you get 2,972 residents per bar, which is why Milwaukee ranks 67th despite holding the most bars in the state.
Bars per person tells you how crowded the drinking is. Bars per square mile tells you how far you drive. The first is a demographic curiosity. The second is a fact about Thursday night.
State vs Price County: The Two Measures Side by Side
The comparison that decides which number belongs in your argument.
| Bars per 10,000 people | Square miles per bar | |
|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin, 71 ranked counties | 4.62 | 19.8 |
| Price County | 3.55 | 250.8 |
| Price County rank | 63rd | 1st |
| Gap to state average | 23% below | 12.7 times above |
| Iron County, the per-person leader | 24.45 | 50.5, rank 15 |
| Milwaukee County, the per-acre leader | 3.37, rank 67 | 0.8, rank 71 |
What Each Measure Gets Right
Residents per bar captures demand. It answers a licensing question and a market question at the same time, and it is the number a beer distributor uses when deciding whether a territory is worth a route. Land per bar captures access. It answers how far a person travels and whether the drive is worth making, which is the question anyone living outside a village actually asks.
Where Each Measure Breaks Down
The payroll count undercounts owner-operated taverns by roughly a factor of five here, so every per-person figure built on it inherits that error. Land area overstates isolation in a county where the ATV and snowmobile network reaches most of these bars without a car; the Price County ATV trail map and 2026 route changes show which corridors connect where. Neither number accounts for the supper clubs and bowling alleys that pour drinks without calling themselves bars.
We laid out the license question in how Wisconsin counts its bars, and the state-to-national version of this comparison sits in the 2.9x national bar rate breakdown. The full 71-county per-person ranking is in the county density breakdown. For the statewide dataset behind all of it, see our Wisconsin bar statistics page.
Which Number Should You Trust?
Use both, and say which one you mean. If you are arguing about how Wisconsin drinks, use bars per resident. If you are arguing about how far a person drives to get one, use land per bar, and Price County wins that argument by a margin no other county can approach.
The two claims are not in conflict. Price County has fewer bars per person than 62 other Wisconsin counties and the most ground to cover per bar of any county in the state. Both are true. Only one of them tells a driver what a night out here actually costs in miles.
See also: why leaving a bar in Price County takes 45 minutes and the Phillips drinking guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many bars are in Price County, Wisconsin?
The Census Bureau’s 2022 County Business Patterns counts 5 drinking places under NAICS 722410. Our own directory lists 26 businesses in Price County under Bars and Nightlife as of July 2026. The federal figure includes only establishments with paid employees.
Which Wisconsin county has the fewest bars per square mile?
Price County, at one bar for every 250.8 square miles of land. Forest County is second at 202.9 and Rusk County third at 152.3. The statewide average is one bar per 19.8 square miles.
Is Price County bigger than Rhode Island?
Yes. Price County covers 1,254.06 square miles of land, and Rhode Island covers 1,033.89, per the Census Bureau’s 2024 Gazetteer. The county is about 21% larger by land area.
Which Wisconsin county has the most bars per person?
Iron County, at 24.45 drinking places per 10,000 residents from 15 bars and 6,136 people. It ranks 15th of 71 by land area per bar, which shows how differently the two measures sort the same counties.
Why do different sources give different bar counts for Wisconsin?
Because they count different things. County Business Patterns counts employer establishments, municipal records count Class B liquor licenses, and directories count businesses that present themselves as bars. A supper club or a bowling alley can hold a license without appearing in any bar count at all.
See also: ATV trails that lead right to Ripsaw Saloon
See also: the Wisconsin supper club ritual (start and end at Ripsaw)
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau – 2024 Gazetteer Files, Counties National (land and water area)
- U.S. Census Bureau – County Business Patterns datasets, 2022 county file
- U.S. Census Bureau – American Community Survey 2022 5-year, total population by Wisconsin county (B01003)
- U.S. Census Bureau – County Business Patterns methodology, employer establishment definition