When it comes to both domestic and craft beers, that age-old concoction of grains, hops, and yeast is still popular across America. Indeed, there are a fair number of U.S. cities for beer lovers with major brewing scenes. So how does the U.S. compare to its northern neighbor, Canada? It can be tough to measure exactly, but the Japanese company Kirin Holdings (well-known for its Kirin Ichiban brand of lagers) has been tracking global beer sales for decades by compiling industry statistics and questioning various brewing associations worldwide.
Kirin’s most recent study, which covers the year of 2023, found that the United States drank about 21,444 thousand kiloliters that year, which translates to about 45 billion pints of beer. In contrast, Canada drank 1,824 thousand kiloliters — unsurprising due to its much smaller population. The more useful data might be beers consumed per capita, which you find by dividing the amount of beer consumed by the country’s population. Measuring it this way can help give you a better idea of how often you’ll see people drinking beer on a day-to-day basis. When adjusting for population, the U.S. comes out to 64 liters of beer per capita yearly, while Canada ranks at 44.6 liters of beer per capita.
America and Canada’s beer stats
When compared to all countries, the United States wasn’t the winner per capita or overall. That distinction goes to China, which has a population around four times that of the United States. When adjusted for this metric, the country that drinks the most beer per capita is the Czechia or the Czech Republic. The pilsner, a style of lager beer, was invented in the Czech city of Pilsen — the Pilsner Urquell brand of beer is based in the city and correctly calls itself the “original” pilsner. Unsurprisingly, the country still has a prominent beer culture to this day. The United States, while coming in second in overall beer consumption behind China, came in 27th place in beer consumption per capita.
Canada’s per capita ranking is too low to show up on Kirin’s charts, but its numbers would likely place it around 46th or 47th place, just ahead of South Korea. Other sources paint a slightly different picture and estimate that Canada’s per capita beer consumption is higher and closer to 60 liters per capita. Either way, the country appears to drink less beer than the United States. It’s worth noting that alcohol consumption is not an easy thing to track consistently due to different social stigmas and alcohol laws in different countries, hence those slightly contradicting numbers.
