The Beer Institute, an American trade association representing USA- based breweries coast to coast, announced beer consumption and other statistics over the past few days and they confirm something most of us already know: Beer is a very large and growing business, contributing significantly to the American economy on multiple levels and adding almost a quarter trillion dollars in annual economic activity.
Looking at the raw numbers, the Beer Institute reports that 99 million Americans consume beer. With a US population estimated at around $314 million at the end of 2012, 99 million represents about 32 percent of the US population. Or, as a percentage of adults of legal drinking age (about 227 million), the nearly 100 million beer drinkers comprise about 44 percent. This makes beer the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the land, easily surpassing that of wine and hard liquor.
Overall U.S. beer consumption per adult age 21 and over is around 28.2 gallons per person, per year. Breaking these numbers down further, the average adult over the age of 21 is consuming about 10 ounces of per day, or roughly one six pack per week.
Of course, beer consumption is not uniformly distributed, neither on an individual basis nor on a regional basis. So, which states consume the most and which the least? Here is a breakdown of beer consumption per capita, ranked highest to lowest, showing the annual gallons of beer consumed per person by state:
1. North Dakota 45.8 gallons
2. New Hampshire 43.9 gallons
3. Montana 41.0 gallons
4. South Dakota 38.9 gallons
5. Wisconsin 36.2 gallons
6. Nevada 35.8 gallons
7. Vermont 35.3 gallons
8. Nebraska 35.2 gallons
9. Texas 34.4 gallons
10. Maine 34 gallons
11. Louisiana 33.9 gallons
12. Mississippi 33.9 gallons
13. Iowa 33.6 gallons
14. Delaware 33.6 gallons
15. Wyoming 33.0 gallons
16. South Carolina 32.7 gallons
17. New Mexico 32.4 gallons
18. Missouri 31.0 gallons
19. Hawaii 30.4 gallons
20. Oregon 30.3 gallons
21. West Virginia 30.3 gallons
22. Alabama 30.2 gallons
23. Ohio 30.1 gallons
24. Colorado 30.0 gallons
25. Arizona 29.5 gallons
26. Illinois 29.1 gallons
27. Alaska 28.7 gallons
28. Pennsylvania 28.6 gallons
29. Minnesota 28.5 gallons
30. Oklahoma 28.3 gallons
31. Kansas 28.3 gallons
32. Washington D.C. 28.3 gallons
33. Idaho 27.8 gallons
34. Florida 27.4 gallons
35. North Carolina 27.1 gallons
36. Michigan 26.8 gallons
37. Arkansas 26.7 gallons
38. Virginia 26.7 gallons
39. Rhode Island 26.3 gallons
40. Massachusetts 26.2 gallons
41. Tennessee 26.2 gallons
42. Indiana 25.9 gallons
43. Georgia 25.7 gallons
44. California 25.5 gallons
45. Washington 24.8 gallons
46. Kentucky 24.4 gallons
47. Maryland 24.2 gallons
48. New York 22.4 gallons
49. New Jersey 22.4 gallons
50. Connecticut 22.1 gallons
51. Utah 20.2 gallons
[…] at the amount of beer shipped to a state and dividing it by the state’s residents. The beer blog GreatBeerNow, noted that the average U.S. beer consumption per adult per year in 2012 was 28.2 gallons. The blog […]