This set is consumption broken down by Dutch province. All seven of them. And there's a clear pattern. The further south you go, the more beer is being drunk. Not just a small difference but a massive one. The difference was almost nine fold between the driest province (Drenthe) and wettest (Limburg) in 1938.
That's a lot. It now makes me wish that I had comparable figures for the UK. I'm sure that there were variations there, too. But I doubt that they were anything like as large.
I'm surprised that the provinces of the Randstad - Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland and Utrecht - had such modest beer consumption. Those three provinces contain all of Holland's largest cities: Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Which is where you would expect inhabitants to be the thirstiest. In reality, the areas closest to Belgium - Zeeland, Noord-Brabant and Limburg - liked their beer the most.
Consumption increased everywhere during the war. Presumably, at least in part due to the presence of German troops. In the case of some provinces doubling. Though these were those with the least consumption before the war.
Post-war, regional difference were still stark, but not quite as extreme as before the war. The ratio of beeriest to least beery had been reduced to merely five to one. With consumption up in the northern provinces and down in all the others, with the exception of Zeeland.
Did they really drink less in the North, or did they just prefer jenever? Sadly, I don't have comparable figures for consumption of spirits.
| Dutch beer consumption per head by province (litres) | |||||||||||
| Year | Groningen | Friesland | Drenthe | Overijssel | Gelderland | Noord-Holland | Zuid-Holland | Utrecht | Zeeland | Noord-Brabant | Limburg |
| 1938 | 6.9 | 5.0 | 4.3 | 10 | 10.2 | 12.7 | 14.2 | 10.5 | 16.7 | 23.6 | 37.0 |
| 1939 | 7.2 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 10.4 | 11.4 | 15.5 | 15.4 | 12.8 | 15.5 | 26.0 | 40.2 |
| 1940 | 8.8 | 6.9 | 5.5 | 12.1 | 15.6 | 16.3 | 19.7 | 17.7 | 21.3 | 54.4 | 41.8 |
| 1941 | 12.3 | 10.4 | 6.8 | 16.5 | 18.2 | 21.3 | 24.4 | 22.3 | 27.8 | 42.9 | 53.1 |
| 1942 | 12.1 | 9.9 | 6.8 | 15.8 | 16.8 | 20.2 | 22.6 | 20.3 | 25.3 | 37.3 | 46.8 |
| 1943 | 13.6 | 10.7 | 8.5 | 18.5 | 18.9 | 21.6 | 25.3 | 22.1 | 28.9 | 40.0 | 49.1 |
| 1946 | 11.1 | 7.4 | 7.9 | 14.2 | 15.7 | 15.8 | 18.5 | 15.6 | 17.5 | 27.7 | 43.3 |
| 1947 | 8.8 | 5.6 | 7.0 | 14.2 | 15.1 | 12.1 | 14.7 | 11.4 | 17.1 | 24.7 | 45.5 |
| 1948 | 6.9 | 4.0 | 5.2 | 11.2 | 11.6 | 9.3 | 11.5 | 8.2 | 17.0 | 19.9 | 39.7 |
| 1949 | 5.0 | 3.2 | 5.7 | 7.8 | 8.5 | 6.8 | 8.6 | 6.0 | 15.0 | 15.5 | 30.9 |
| 1950 | 5.5 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 8.9 | 8.7 | 6.7 | 9.1 | 6.1 | 16.0 | 16.3 | 31.2 |
| 1951 | 5.8 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 9.5 | 9.0 | 6.5 | 9.1 | 6.2 | 15.4 | 16.5 | 29.8 |
| 1952 | 6.1 | 4.0 | 4.8 | 9.9 | 9.2 | 7.0 | 9.6 | 6.6 | 19.0 | 15.5 | 29.4 |
| 1953 | 7.5 | 4.8 | 5.9 | 11.5 | 10.5 | 8.1 | 10.9 | 7.9 | 21.7 | 18.0 | 29.9 |
| 1954 | 8.0 | 5.2 | 6.3 | 12.5 | 11.6 | 8.8 | 12.1 | 8.9 | 21.3 | 19.7 | 31.8 |
| Source: | |||||||||||
| De Nederlandse Brouwindustrie in Cijfers, by Dr. H. Hoelen, Centraal Brouwerij Kantoor, 1955, held at the Amsterdam City Archives, page 58 and 59. | |||||||||||
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5 comments:
May just be a coincidence, but most of those areas were predominantly Catholic I think? Were there any Protestant-run temperance movements which might have affected alcohol consumption in the Northern/Central parts?
Possible correlation of alcohol consumption with religion. Check Dutch Reformed population versus Catholic? My Dutch Reformed grandparents' families were from Friesland. No big drinkers among them.
Just looked at the Wikipedia article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Netherlands
Map of 1849 Dutch rligious affiliations shows a Protestant north and Catholic south.
arnie moodenbaugh,
religion might well have played a part in places like Frielsland and Drenthe. But I don't think people in the big cities in the West of Holland were very religious. More likely to have been necking jenever rather than beer.
Hi Ron, an article in De Volksstem in 1894 reports:
Per capita consumption of strong liquor in the Netherlands was 8.94 litres.
The figures per province were:
Noord-Brabant: 9.92 litres
Gelderland 8.22
Zuid-Holland 11.23
Zeeland 5.82
Utrecht 10.35
Friesland 6.89
Overijssel 9.43
Groningen: 11.54
Drenghte 7.79
Limburg: 3.39
The writer explains the lower figure for Limburg by their higher beer consumption. For Friesland, the less favourable economic circumstances are quoted as a reason for its modest consumption.
The article also quotes the figures for a few cities:
Amsterdam 14.09
Haarlem 13.42
Utrecht 15.13
Rotterdam 14.27
Den Haag 13.89
Schiedam 5.49
Arnhem 15.17
Tilburg: less than 9
Breda 14.67
Den Bosch 13.33
Almelo 22.91
Enschede 18.03
Zwolle 15.89
It is clear that jenever consumption was much higher in cities than in the countryside (several villages were at less than 1 litre per year). Interestingly, consumption was rather low in Schiedam, which was a major production centre. But perhaps a lot of booze was drunk illegally there, straight from the distillery.
As a side note, the number of pubs was much higher in Limburg, Zeeland and Noord-Brabant. In 1913, Limburg had 1 café per 58 inhabitants, while in Zuid-Holland, there was 1 café for each 412 inhabitants. Friesland had to make do with 1 café for each 771 inhabitants.
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