The 10 Countries That Drink the Most Beer Per Person
Kirin Holdings has tracked global beer consumption since 1975. Its 2024 report, released December 22, 2025, covers 170 countries. The Czech Republic has been #1 in per-capita consumption for 32 consecutive years. Germany, the country the world associates with beer culture, is 10th. Spain is 7th.
1971 created millionaires. Most Americans watched it happen from the wrong side.
On Sunday evening, August 15, 1971, Richard Nixon interrupted regular television programming.
He spoke for 15 minutes.
By the time he finished, the gold standard was over. The dollar was no longer backed by anything except the government's word. And every dollar in every American's savings account had quietly changed — not in number, but in what it actually meant.
Nixon didn't ask Congress. He didn't hold a debate. He used a single executive authority and by Monday morning the monetary world had shifted.
The people who saw it coming had already moved. Gold tripled in three years. Over the next decade it went up twenty times.
The people who didn't understand what was happening watched their savings quietly lose value for a decade. They never recovered it.
Here's what the financial press isn't saying clearly:
Trump has that same executive authority today. And his own advisors are now openly saying the reversal of what Nixon did is on the table.
If he acts, it moves fast. There are two ways this plays out. Both of them move gold in the same direction.
We put together a free briefing on exactly what Nixon did, why Trump is the first president positioned to reverse it, and the one move Americans can make right now to be on the right side of what comes next.
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Nixon didn't warn anyone before that Sunday night broadcast.
Trump's advisors are warning you right now.
Source: Kirin Holdings, Global Beer Consumption by Country in 2024, released December 22, 2025. Litres per capita, total population basis.
The Czech Republic has 10.9 million people. Each of them, averaged across the entire population — children, elderly, abstainers included — consumes 148.8 litres of beer a year. That is 235 bottles, or more than four a week, every single week. The Czech Republic has held this ranking for 32 consecutive years, every year since 1993. No other country has come close.
Germany is 10th. The country that invented Oktoberfest, codified the Reinheitsgebot purity law in 1516, and gave the world its most recognizable beer culture drinks 86.9 litres per person. That is 71% less than the Czech Republic. Spain — a country most people associate with wine and sun — sits at #7 with 91.8 litres, comfortably ahead of Germany.
Lithuania is #2 with 110.6 litres. Lithuania does not have the international beer reputation of Germany or Ireland. It exports no famous global brands. Yet it is the world’s second-highest beer consumer per person by a meaningful margin. Estonia is at #6 (93.2L) and Latvia ranks 17th (79.1L). The Baltic states are a quiet beer belt.
Nine of the top 10 are European. The pattern holds throughout the ranking: older urban pub cultures, colder climates, and centuries of grain-based brewing produce consistently high consumption. Spain at #7 is the outlier, and its rise has been steady since the 1980s. Beer is more refreshing in heat, and a younger Spanish generation shifted from wine decades ago.
The big-volume countries are nowhere near the top per capita. China is the world’s #1 total beer consumer — 40.5 million kiloliters in 2024, about 21% of everything consumed globally — but spread across 1.4 billion people, that yields roughly 29 litres per capita. The US consumes 22.3 million kiloliters in total and ranks 29th per capita at 65.4 litres. Scale dilutes the number.
India grew its beer market by 14.6% in 2024, the fastest rate among the top 25 countries by volume. Russia grew 9.0%. Thailand 5.8%. The consumption growth is in Asia. But Europe’s per-capita lead is so large — Germany at 86.9L vs India at 2.4L — that the per-capita table will look familiar for a long time.
FIVE NUMBERS WORTH REMEMBERING
32
Consecutive years the Czech Republic has ranked #1 in per-capita beer consumption. The streak started in 1993 and has shown no sign of ending.
235 bottles
The number of 633ml beers the average Czech person drinks per year. More than four a week, every week, for every person in the country including children.
10th
Germany’s rank. The home of Oktoberfest and the Reinheitsgebot is outside the top nine. Spain, Lithuania, Austria, Romania, and Slovenia all consume more per person.
71%
How much more beer the Czech Republic drinks per person than Germany (148.8L vs 86.9L). Despite being neighbors with shared brewing traditions, the gap has been consistent for decades.
2.4L
India’s annual per-capita beer consumption, ranked 102nd globally. India’s beer market grew 14.6% in 2024 — the fastest among the top 25 countries by total volume.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Germany invented Oktoberfest and the Reinheitsgebot. It is ranked 10th. The country that actually drinks the most beer per person has held the title for 32 consecutive years.
Kirin publishes its global beer survey each December, covering the prior full year. The 2025 data arrives December 2026. The trend to watch is India: up 14.6% in 2024, the fastest-growing major market by volume among the top 25 countries. At the per-capita end, the Czech Republic’s 32-year streak has no visible challenger. Germany has been trending downward for several years — it fell from 8th to 10th in 2024 alone. We’ll be watching.
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