Which country drinks the most beer?

When you think of beer drinkers, which country drinks the most beer?  USA?  Ireland?  Australia?  According to the Japanese company Kirin Holdings, China is the number one beer drinking country.  Again.  Not only did they repeat, China is the number one beer drinking country for the fourth year in a row!

Chinese beer consumption for 2006 was 350 million hectoliters.  That’s up 14.8% from 2005, according to Kirin.  The United States was number two with 245 million hectoliters, and Russia pulled a distant third with 96 million hectoliters.

If you are wondering how population is skewing these numbers, you would be correct in wondering.  Per capita, China is 53rd in beer drinking, so it really is not fair to crown China as the beer drinking capital of the world.  Who really is number one?

The Czech Republic drinks the most beer per capita

Per capita, the Czechs drink far more beer than any other country.  Each person drinks 161.5 liters per year in the Czech Republic.

World beer consumption rose by 5.8% to 1.65 billion hectoliters.  World beer consumption has risen for 21 years straight.

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