Where In The World Are The Beer Lovers?

While many countries have their own special days to celebrate beer, one of the oldest alcoholic beverages known to humankind, International Beer Day is aimed at beer drinkers everywhere.

Every first Friday in August, special events are held in bars and pubs around the world.

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, some countries' inhabitants might be more prone to celebrate than others.

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A recent Statista Consumer Insight survey shows that some Latin American countries exhibit a share of between 35 and 44 percent of regular beer drinkers. Brazil tops the list with 44 percent of survey participants between legal drinking age and 64 years old regularly consuming the alcoholic drink usually made with malted barley, hops, water and yeast. Coming in first is Spain, however, with 45 percent of respondents saying the same.

Another Southern European country, Italy, also ranks high with 42 percent regular beer consumers.

Asia is also home to some of the biggest beer lovers, with 44 percent in Vietnam and 40 percent in Thailand saying they were regular beer drinkers. Muslim countries Malaysia and Indonesia see much fewer people drink beer on the regular, at just 15 percent and 6 percent, respectively. In China, the world's largest beer market, only a third of respondents say they are regular consumers. Overall, developing countries with younger populations are more likely to see higher beer consumption and production, while those with aging or shrinking populations typically see fewer beer drinkers.

Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom, countries associated with many popular beer brands and varieties, are closer to the 31-country average of around a third of respondents being regular beer drinkers.

In the United States, this figure was even lower at around a quarter of respondents between the ages of 21 and 64 years old.

While the Chinese may not be the biggest drinkers in the worlds, they are the world’s leading producer of beer, according to the latest BarthHaas Report. In 2025, the country’s output stood at 354 million hectoliters of beer. A hectoliter is equivalent to one hundred liters.

As the following chart shows, the United States is the second biggest producer of beer with an output of 175 million hectoliters last year. However, both countries have seen production decline over the past two years, as have a number of other nations, mostly in the developed world.

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As the beer market struggles with changing consumption patterns and stagnating real incomes, countries with aging or declining populations have yet another factor weighing on the alcoholic beverage market.

Germany, Spain and Japan all saw their production fall over the course of the past two years.

Rounding off the top 5 countries are Brazil, Mexico and Russia, which all saw production increases since 2023. Asia showed more of a mixed picture with production increasing in Vietnam as well as India, Thailand and the Philippines, while it was down in China, Japan and South Korea. Meanwhile, the African continent saw a significant 16 million hectoliter increase in output since 2023.