Tuesday 24 October 2017

The number of pubs in the UK

You hear a lot of talk about pub closures. That such and such a number are closing every week. But I like numbers, me. Long strings of numbers that explain exactly what;'s going on.

I managed to snag a free copy of the British Beer and Pub Association Statistical Handbook for 2017. It's full of numbers, which is why I wanted it. Including ones on UK pub numbers. It has a nice long set, from 1990 to 2016. What do they tell us?

A quick seach on the internet found various articles that specified the number of pubs closing each week. The ones dated 2015 and 2016 quoted closure numbers between 21 and 29 a week. One claimed that in 2009 the rate was 52 per week. Some of those figures look rather exaggerated, especially the 52 a week one.

Let's take a look at the real numbers:


UK number of pubs
year no. pubs closures per week 5 year average closures
1990 63,500
1991 62,200 25.0
1992 61,600 11.5
1993 61,000 11.5
1994 60,700 5.8
1995 61,000 -5.8
1996 60,800 3.8 3.1
1997 60,600 3.8
1998 61,000 -7.7
1999 61,500 -9.6
2000 60,800 13.5
2001 60,700 1.9 -0.4
2002 60,100 11.5
2003 59,400 13.5
2004 59,000 7.7
2005 58,600 7.7
2006 58,200 7.7 7.3
2007 57,500 13.5
2008 56,900 11.5
2009 55,900 19.2
2010 55,400 9.6
2011 54,700 13.5 10.8
2012 53,800 17.3
2013 52,500 25.0
2014 51,900 11.5
2015 50,800 21.2
2016 50,300 9.6 13.5
Source:
BBPA Statistical Handbook 2017, page 68.

I was very surprised to swee that the number of pubs actually increased in the second half of the 1990's. It's also clear that the rate of closuress has varied quite a bit. With 2016 seeing the smallest drop in a decade. That wasn't what I was expecting. Though the five years 2012 to 2016 are the worst in the set.

I'm not going to get involved in arguments about the root cause. Though I expect the crash in 2008 will have played a part. If I were being clever, I'd also include the percentage of beer sold in the on and off trade and beer consumption. Maybe I'll do that, if I can be arsed.

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