Americans love their beer. With over 9,000 breweries operating in the United States, there’s no shortage of craft or macro brews for stateside beer lovers to try out. Of the three beverage categories — beer, wine, and spirits — beer is overwhelmingly the most drunk, with over 6.4 billion gallons consumed per year compared to wine’s 931 million and spirits’ 635 million, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Here at VinePair, we were curious to learn how beer consumption varies by state. Surprisingly, highly populated states including California, Texas, and Florida consume the most by volume, but it’s smaller, much less populous states that secure the top three spots in per capita consumption.

Curious to see where your state ranks when it comes to annual beer consumption? Check out our color-coded maps depicting state-by-state beer consumption by volume and per capita below!

The States That Drink the Most Beer Per Capita

While New Hampshire appears to consume the most beer per capita, the state’s high beer sales are aided by residents of other states taking advantage of New Hampshire’s lack of booze tax. Interestingly, rounding out the top five are the less populous states of Montana, Vermont, North Dakota, and Maine.

The States That Drink the Most Beer in America Per Capita Map, Infographic

The States That Drink The Most Beer Overall

Naturally, the most populous states in the U.S. consume the most beer by volume. California leads the pack with over 772 million gallons consumed per annum. Rounding out the top five states that drink the most beer are Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York, respectively.

The States That Drink the Most Beer in America Overall, by Gallons Map, Infographic

Ranking the States: Gallons Per Capita

Rank State Gallons of Ethanol Per Capita*
1 New Hampshire 1.89
2 Montana 1.66
3 Vermont 1.63
4 North Dakota 1.48
5 Maine 1.37
6 South Dakota 1.34
7 Pennsylvania 1.33
8 Nevada 1.32
9 Hawaii 1.28
10 Wisconsin 1.27
11 Iowa 1.26
12 Texas 1.25
13 Louisiana 1.24
14 New Mexico 1.20
15 Wyoming 1.20
16 Mississippi 1.19
17 Nebraska 1.19
18 West Virginia 1.14
19 Colorado 1.13
20 Oregon 1.13
21 Delaware 1.12
22 Minnesota 1.11
23 Ohio 1.11
24 Missouri 1.09
25 Kansas 1.08
26 California 1.07
27 Washington D.C. 1.07
28 North Carolina 1.06
29 South Carolina 1.06
30 Arizona 1.05
31 Illinois 1.05
32 Alabama 1.04
33 Florida 1.03
34 Alaska 1.02
35 Michigan 1.00
36 Oklahoma 0.98
37 Tennessee 0.97
38 Virginia 0.96
39 Indiana 0.94
40 Georgia 0.93
41 Arkansas 0.91
42 Kentucky 0.91
43 Washington 0.88
44 Massachusetts 0.85
45 New York 0.84
46 Idaho 0.83
47 New Jersey 0.82
48 Rhode Island 0.82
49 Connecticut 0.79
50 Maryland 0.77
51 Utah 0.55

Ranking the States: Gallons Overall

Rank State Gallons Overall
1 California 772.2M
2 Texas 653.2M
3 Florida 424.1M
4 Pennsylvania 318.9M
5 New York 302.4M
6 Illinois 243.4M
7 Ohio 238.7M
8 North Carolina 207.7M
9 Michigan 185.7M
10 Georgia 181.9M
11 Virginia 152.6M
12 Arizona 143.9M
13 Wisconsin 137.6M
14 New Jersey 134.4M
15 Washington 125.4M
16 Tennessee 123.9M
17 Missouri 122.9M
18 Colorado 122.1M
19 Indiana 115.9M
20 Minnesota 115.0M
21 Massachusetts 110.9M
22 Louisiana 104.8M
23 South Carolina 102.4M
24 Alabama 94.4M
25 Oregon 89.6M
26 Maryland 86.4M
27 Nevada 76.2M
28 Kentucky 74.6M
29 Iowa 72.7M
30 Oklahoma 70.8M
31 Mississippi 64.5M
32 Kansas 57.0M
33 Connecticut 53.1M
34 Arkansas 50.3M
35 New Hampshire 49.3M
36 New Mexico 46.5M
37 Nebraska 41.5M
38 West Virginia 38.4M
39 Maine 35.3M
40 Hawaii 33.4M
41 Montana 33.3M
42 Utah 30.8M
43 Idaho 27.5M
44 South Dakota 21.4M
45 Delaware 20.6M
46 North Dakota 20.4M
47 Vermont 19.4M
48 Rhode Island 16.5M
49 Washington D.C. 14.4M
50 Alaska 13.4M
51 Wyoming 12.8M

*This data uses an estimate of average ethanol content of sold or shipped beer into gallons of ethanol (pure alcohol) before calculating per capita consumption estimates. For this data, the alcohol by volume value for beer is 0.045.

*Image sourced from Meritt Thomas – Unsplash.com

Published: March 6, 2023