A beer powerhouse? Slovakia is currently lagging behind in the consumption of golden liquid, Croatia and African Gabon are already ahead of us
Slovakia lags behind in beer consumption. According to the latest data from the Japanese brewing company Kirin, in 2021 beer consumption per capita fell by four places and fell out of the top 10 countries in the ranking. This is still clearly dominated by the Czechs, for almost three decades.
In Slovakia, 79.8 liters of beer per inhabitant were consumed in 2021. In a year-on-year comparison, this only means a slight decrease of about 1.5 liters per capita, but with the increase in appetite in other countries, Slovakia has fallen four places in the ranking of beer sizes. We moved from 9th position in 2020 to 13th place in the global comparison per capita.
For example, Latvia with a consumption of 80.2 liters per capita, the African Gabon with 80.4 liters, or Croatia, which consumed 82.4 liters per capita, moved up to 10th position by 6 places in the year-on-year ranking. Compared to 2020, Spain also surpassed us in beer consumption per capita with 88.5 liters.
The ranking of beer superpowers in terms of beer consumption is traditionally dominated by the Czech Republic. In 2021, our neighbors consumed up to 184.1 liters of beer per inhabitant, roughly 2 liters more year-on-year. Austria was in second place with a consumption of 98.7 liters per capita. The Czech Republic has thus taken first place in per capita beer consumption 29 times in a row.
However, the greatest growth in beer appetite has been recorded in Lithuania in recent years. In 2019, the country was only 19th in beer consumption per capita. In 2020, Lithuania was already in 6th place in the ranking of beer sizes. In 2021, more than 96 liters of beer per capita were consumed in the country, which meant a shift again, this time to 3rd place.
China dominates the beer world
However, the overall largest beer markets have to be found outside of Europe. China has been the largest beer market in the world for a long time. This was also confirmed in 2021, when more than 380 million hectoliters of beer were consumed in China. At the same time, beer consumption in China increased by almost 6% compared to the previous year, and the market share increased by 0.3 financial points to 20.5%. China has been the leader in beer consumption for 19 years in a row.
The second last beer market in the world remains the United States of America with an annual consumption of over 240 million hectoliters. Although beer consumption in the US increased slightly by about 1% year-on-year, the share of the global market decreased by 13.4% to 13%. The third position of the largest beer markets in the world was defended in 2021 by Brazil with over 145 million hectoliters.
In 2021, a total of over 1.85 billion hectoliters of beer was consumed in the world, which represented a 4 percent year-on-year increase after the covid slump in 2020.