The Countries That Drink the Most Beer

Beer is enjoyed by thirsty drinkers worldwide, but it seems some countries love beer a bit more than others. A recent ranking of the top beer-consuming countries breaks down the 25 countries that drink the most — and No. 1 one might surprise you.

Kirin Holdings Company published its 2021 beer consumption report on Dec. 23, which includes data from 170 countries and regions worldwide. 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 suggest a global bounce-back after Covid-19 — as the report states, total beer consumption increased by 4 percent and 7.13 million kiloliters (over 1.88 billion gallons) worldwide between 2020 and 2021. The report ranks consumption volume by country and region.

China tops the list, reporting over 38 million kiloliters (some 10 billion gallons) drank in 2021. That’s a little over 20 percent of the global market share and more than a 5 percent increase year-over-year. It’s also the 19th consecutive year that the country has topped the list. The United States follows with the second-highest total volume consumed; Americans slurped down over 24 million kiloliters (some 6.3 billion gallons) of beer in 2021.

While China led the pack in the overall amount of beer consumed, the Czech Republic recorded the highest per-capita beer consumption for the 29th year in a row.

Curious how the rest of the world stacks up? Read on to learn which countries drank the most beer in 2021.

The full report is also available on the Kirin Holdings website.