The Czech Republic leads all nations in beer consumption per capita - by a whopping 78%

No shocker: Czechs drink a lot of beer.

But in honor of International Beer Day on August 7, here are some recent statistics that might help put a little perspective on just how much beer is consumed in the Czech Republic.

Every year, Japanese brewery Kirin has released an annual report on global beer consumption by country through their Kirin Beer University. And every year since 1993, the Czech Republic has lead all countries in beer consumption per capita. No coincidence: the Czech Republic was also founded in 1993.

According to the latest Kirin report, published at the end of 2019, the Czech Republic drank north of 2 billion liters of beer in 2018, good enough for 19th on the overall list of countries by total consumption, which was topped by China (39 billion liters) and the United States (24 billion).

Of course, the Czech Republic has a much smaller population than those countries, and others on the list. In terms of beer consumption by capita, the country leads the world – by a considerable margin.

The average Czech drank 191.1 liters of beer in 2018, nearly double the amount of the next highest nation, Austria at 107.6 liters per capita.

European countries, and Czech neighbors, were easily the world’s heaviest beer drinkers, with Germany (the only other country to consume more than 100 liters per capita), Romania, Poland, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia, and Croatia also making the top 10. Namibia was the only non-European country among them.

While beer consumption was relatively stable through most of these countries, it soared by 4.7% in the Czech Republic in 2018. According to Kirin’s stats, the average Czech drank a whopping 17 more half-liter beers in 2018 than they did in 2017.

Across Europe, beer consumption was up by 1.2% in 2018 compared to the previous year.