About one in seven Americans admit to driving drunk, and states in the upper Midwest -- led by Wisconsin -- have the highest rates of DUI, according to a new government report.

The Associated Press reported April 23 that the report, derived from data in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, estimated that about a quarter of Wisconsin adults admit to driving under the influence, the most in the country. North Dakota ranked second, followed by Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

Utah, as usual, had the lowest DUI rates, followed by West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina, all of which had self-reported drunk-driving rates of 11 percent or less.

Culture and demographics likely play a role in determining drunk-driving variations from state to state and region to region, said Eric Goplerud, director of the Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems project at George Washington University Medical Center. In Utah and the South, for example, religious beliefs often discourage drinking, whereas in the northern states, "a good part of the social life is around drinking," said Goplerud.

"Even in Utah, which reported the nation's lowest rate, nearly one in 10 drivers report driving under the influence of alcohol within the past year," said Westley Clark, director of the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. "So, even in states that have low consumption rates or low DUI rates, they too need to reflect on the approach they're taking. We don't want people to lull themselves into a false sense of security."