Lion’s parent company Kirin Holdings has revealed the top 25 countries in the world for beer consumption, with China taking out the top spot.

Can you guess where Australia ranked on the list?

Kirin published its 2021 beer consumption report on December 23, which included data from 170 countries and regions worldwide. The corporation has monitored worldwide beer consumption since 1975. It bases the rankings on annual questionnaires sent to several brewers associations worldwide as well as recent beer industry reports.

Total global beer consumption in 2021 increased by approximately 7.13 million kl (equivalent to approximately 11.3 billion 633ml bottles) from the previous year due to the easing of the impact of the spread of COVID-19, to approximately 185.6 million kl (up 4.0% from the previous year, or approximately 293.2 billion 633ml bottles equivalent).

China remained the largest beer-consuming country in the world for the 19th consecutive year since 2003, an increase of 5.6% compared to 2020. Japan dropped one place to eighth, its first decrease in 15 years since 2007, consuming 5.2% less beer
than 2020. India recovered significantly from 24th in 2020 to 14th place in 2021 (increase of 28.2% from the previous year)

As for where Australia landed, it came in at No.22.

The top 25 beer drinking countries

1. China
2. United States of America
3. Brazil
4. Russia
5. Mexico
6. Germany
7. United Kingdom
8. Japan
9. Vietnam
10. Spain
11. South Africa
12. Poland
13. Colombia
14. India
15. France
16. Italy
17. Ukraine
18. Argentina
19. Czech Republic
20. Canada
21. South Korea
22. Australia
23. Romania
24. Thailand
25. Ethiopia

The Czech Republic remained the world’s top in per-capita beer consumption for the 29th consecutive year since 1993. Among the top 35 countries, eight countries saw a decrease in consumption from 2020 to 2021. Japan consumed 33.2 liters of beer—the equivalent of about 52.5 633ml bottles—on a per-capita basis in 2021, down the equivalent of 2.7 633ml bottles year-on-year.

Australia came in at No.19 for per-capita beer consumption.

The year Aussies drank the most beer in the world

While Australia didn’t even make the top 10 for beer-loving countries in 2021, an animated chart has revealed the countries that drank the most beer for the last 50 years and the year that Australia took out the No.1 spot for the first time.

The chart takes its data from the World Health Organization Global Health Observatory and tracks the countries that drank the most beer per capita every year from 1961 to 2018.

For many years, it was Germany that topped the list. But in 1973 Australia hit No.1 – drinking 9.59 litres per capita – however by 2018 it didn’t even make the list.

View the mesmerising animated chart that shows the rise and fall of beer drinking in Australia: