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.