Beer consumption per capita 1976 – 2004

It turns out arsing wasn’t  problem. So here are figures for the intervening years. Or at least some of them.

My apologies for their incompleteness. The different sources I’ve used have different subsets of countries, hence the holes in certain places. A word of warning, too: the figures don’t always use the figure for population. Some only includes those of legal drinking age, others over-16’s and others the whole population. Unfortunately, some sources don’t bother to say which population figure they’ve used.

Here are the tables (a single table is too wide):

Beer consumption per capita 1976 - 2004
Country	1976	1980	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1993
Belgium	143	131	128	126.3	121	119.8	122	119	115	121	108
West Germany	147	145.9	148.6	144.4	145.4	156.4	144.2	144	143
East Germany	118	-	146.7	142.2	141.6	142.1	143	143	-
Germany											138
Australia	142	-	117.8	114.5	115.5	111.3	111	113	-	-	96
New Zealand	133	-	114	116.9	115.2	120.8	122	115	-	-	-
United Kingdom	126	121.7	108	108.4	77	77.3	94	94	90	-	112.6
Austria	104	101.9	109.4	107.7	111.6	118.5	118.3	118	-	-	118
Denmark	128	130.7	133.9	129.7	121.2	125.7	125	125	127	-	126
Switzerland	71	69.5	70.3	68.6	69.2	69.4	69.3	69	-	-	65.5
Canada	86	-	83.5	82.7	81.6	81.1	82	83	-	-	71
United States	82	-	92	90.7	90.3	90.8	90.1	89	-	-	86
France	-	44.3	-	-	-	38	39	-	-	-	39
Sweden	60	47.4	-	-	-	47	52	-	-	-	64
Netherlands	73	86.4	87.5	83.4	84.5	86	84.3	83	88	-	85
Norway	-	48.1	-	-	-	49	-	-	-	-	50
Italy	-	16.7	-	-	-	18	23	-	-	-	25.1

Beer consumption per capita 1976 - 2004
Country	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Belgium	106	106	102	101	98	100	99	98	96	96	93
West Germany
East Germany
Germany	139	137.7	131.7	131.2	127.4	127.5	125.5	123.1	-	117.7
Australia	-	-	95.3	94.7	94.5
New Zealand	-	-	-	-	84.7	-	-	-	-	-
United Kingdom	112.6	112.7	118	123.7	124.2	126	125	125	-	118
Austria	117	115.6	116	113.2	108.1	108.9	108	106.9	-	110.6
Denmark	126	124.4	117.6	116.7	107.7	104.6	102	99	-	96.2
Switzerland	64.8	64.5	60.6	59.5	59.9	58.8	58.3	57	-	58.7
Canada	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
United States	-	-	-	-	82	-	82	81	-	-
France	39.3	39.1	39.6	37	38.6	38.7	36.2	36	-	35.5
Sweden	67.3	64.5	59	61.7	57.3	59.3	58.4	55	-	55.4
Netherlands	85	86	85.1	86.4	84.3	84.4	82.8	83	-	78.8
Norway	50.5	52.5	52.6	52.9	49.7	52	52	51	52	50.6
Italy	26.2	25.4	24	25.4	26.9	27.1	28	29	-	30.1
Sources:
World Guide to Beer, Michael Jackson,
Bier in Belgie, Geert van Lierde,
Larousse la bière,
The Confederation of Belgian Brewers.
Economics Department, German Brewers' Association.
Brauwelt Brevier 2000
Brauwelt 31-32/2002
Bryggeriforeningen (Norway)
Brauwelt 18/2004 page .513
Brauwelt 3/2004, page 86
Brauwelt 22/2004, page 651
The Brewers of Europe (2003)
Centraal Brouwerij Kantoor
Het Brouwersblad June 2004. p.6
Deutscher Brauer-Bund, Bonn
Brauwelt Brevier 2005, p.20
1988 Brewers' Almanack, page 67.
Het Brouwersblad June 2005. p.7

This is only a subset of the full table that includes so many countries that it’s rather unwieldy. Though you never know, I might be arsed to publish it in full.

It’s fascinating to note when beer consumption peaked in the different countries. Though as I don’t have figures for every single year it’s not 100% pinned down. Germany 1986, Belgium 1976, Australia 1976, New Zealand 1976, UK 1976 and 1999, Austria 1986, Denmark 1983, Switzerland 1963, Canada 1976, USA 1983, France 1980, Sweden 1994, Netherlands 1989, Norway 2010 and 2011, Italy 2003.

As you can see, in most of the traditional beer-drinking countries the peak was in the 1970’s or 1980’s. Outliers are Switzerland with 1963 and Norway and Italy, the only two countries with a peak in the 21st century.

I’m sure you pick more out of the numbers. Like Austria’s level of consumption being quite constant, the UK’s being up and down, but in most of the West a slow, steady decline for the last 20 years.