Wednesday 18 August 2010

Beer consumption per head in 1877

Funny the things you stumble across. This is something I found whilst trying pin down Colgate 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.

2 comments:

Atis said...

Current consumption in Russia is approx. 60 l. But I am not sure about 1873 numbers, I would not trust any Russian statistics from that period. Each province had its own ways of dealing with numbers, definition of what is brewery and what is not and so on.

As far as know, beer consumption per capita in Western part of the Russia (that also included current Poland, Finland, Baltic States, Belorus) during these years was about 40-60 l and reached its peak just before WWI.

Tandleman said...

These 1877 Bavarians liked an hour out eh?