Beer has enjoyed a long run as the world’s most popular alcoholic beverage. But as reflected in a recent ranking of the top beer-consuming countries worldwide, some nations love the stuff more than others.
Kirin Holdings Company published its 2022 beer consumption report in Dec. 2023, which includes data from 170 major countries and regions. The corporation, which works in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and health industries, has monitored worldwide beer consumption since 1975. It bases the rankings on annual questionnaires sent to several brewers associations worldwide as well as recent beer industry reports.
The numbers demonstrate that despite unstable global conditions, global beer consumption has returned to pre-Covid levels, with 2022 showing a 1-percent increase over consumption in 2019. In total, 192.1 million kiloliters (over 50.5 billion gallons) of beer were consumed across the globe in 2022, an increase of 2.9 percent year over year.
For the 20th year in a row, China was the largest beer-consuming country in the world, drinking just over 42 million kiloliters (11.1 billion gallons) of the stuff in 2022 — accounting for approximately 22 percent of the world’s market share. That’s more than double the consumption of the United States, which trailed behind in second place. That same year, Americans downed 20.3 million kiloliters (5.4 billion gallons) of beer, claiming a market share of 10.6 percent.
Rounding out the top five countries in terms of overall consumption are Brazil with 14.9 million kiloliters (3.9 million gallons), Mexico with 9.9 million kiloliters (2.6 million gallons), and Russia with 8.5 million kiloliters (2.2 million gallons).
While China may come out on top when it comes to overall consumption, the country doesn’t even rank in the top 35 when it comes to per capita consumption. Instead, the No. 1 title goes to the Czech Republic, which claimed the top spot for the 30th consecutive year in 2022 with 188.5 liters (approximately 50 gallons) of beer consumed per capita. Filling out the top three are Austria and Poland, which placed second and third, respectively.
Curious to see how the rest of the world stacks up? Read on to learn which countries drank the most beer in 2022.
The full report is also available on the Kirin Holdings website.
| Ranking | Country |
|---|---|
| 1 | China |
| 2 | United States of America |
| 3 | Brazil |
| 4 | Mexico |
| 5 | Russia |
| 6 | Germany |
| 7 | Vietnam |
| 8 | United Kingdom |
| 9 | Spain |
| 10 | Japan |
| 11 | South Africa |
| 12 | Poland |
| 13 | India |
| 14 | Colombia |
| 15 | South Korea |
| 16 | Italy |
| 17 | France |
| 18 | Czech Republic |
| 19 | Argentina |
| 20 | Canada |
| 21 | Australia |
| 22 | Thailand |
| 23 | Romania |
| 24 | Philippines |
| 25 | Ethiopia |
