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Funny the things you stumble across. This is something I found whilst trying pin down Coelgate hops. It's beer consumption per head statistics from the 1870's. And you know how much I like statistics.


Beer consumption per head in 1873
Country
population
total consumption (hl)
proportion per head (litres)
proportion per head (litres) calculated from the other figures
2003
Austria and Hungary
35,644,000
12,222,000
34.5
34.3
110.6
Prussia
24,693,000
9,271,900
39.5
37.5
117.7
Saxony
2,556,000
1,545,280
60.5
60.5


Other parts of Northern Germany
4,116,000
2,002,990
48.5
48.7


Bavaria
4,198,000
9,207,030
219
219.3


Wurtemberg
1,818,000
2,801,080
154
154.1


Baden
1,461,000
418,950
56
28.7


Alsace-Lorraine
1,638,000
836,310
51
51.1


Great Britain and Ireland
30,838,000
35,682,590
118
115.7
99.5
Belgium
4,829,000
7,000,000
145
145.0
96
France
36,103,000
7,000,000
19
19.4
35.5
Netherlands
3,652,000
1,355,720
37
37.1
78.8
Sweden
4,159,000
520,000
14.5
12.5
55.4
Norway
1,701,000
253,400
12.5
14.9
50.6
Russia
63,659,000
9,740,000
14
15.3


North America
38,650,000
9,982,000
26
25.8
81
Source:
"Hops their Cultivation Commerce and Uses in Various Countries" by Peter Simmonds, 1877, page 145

A couple of notes: the 2003 figure given for Austria and Hungary is just for Austria; that for Prussia is for all of Germany; that for Great Britain and Irealnd is the UK; that for North America is the USA. Some of the numbers in the orignal table don't tally. Which is why I've added my own calculation.

You'll see that beer consumption has increased in most countries. Apart from Bavaria, Belgium and the UK, who were the top three in 1873.


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