The States that Drink the Most Beer in America (2022). [Map]

Americans love beer. With over 9,000 breweries operating in the United States, there’s no shortage of craft or macro brews for stateside beer lovers to try out. Of the three beverage categories — beer, wine, and spirits — beer is overwhelmingly the most drunk, with over 6.4 billion gallons consumed per year compared to wine’s 931 million and spirits’ 635 million, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

VinePair was interested in how beer consumption varied by state. Surprisingly, highly populated states including California, Texas, and Florida consume the most by volume, but it’s smaller, much less populous states that secure the top three spots in per capita consumption.

You might be interested in seeing where your state ranks with regard to beer consumption per capita. Below are our color-coded maps that show state-by-state beer consumption per capita and volume.

The States with the highest beer consumption per capita

While New Hampshire appears to consume the most beer per capita, the state’s high beer sales are aided by residents of other states taking advantage of New Hampshire’s lack of booze tax. The top five states with the lowest population are Montana, Vermont and North Dakota.

The states that drink the most beer overall

Naturally, the U.S. states with the highest population consume the largest amounts of beer. California leads the pack, with more than 772 millions gallons of beer consumed annually. New York, Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas round out the top five states which consume the most beer.

Gallons per capita: Ranking the States

Gallons Overall: Ranking of the States

*This data uses an estimate of average ethanol content of sold or shipped beer into gallons of ethanol (pure alcohol) before calculating per capita consumption estimates. This data shows that beer has an alcohol volume value of 0.045.

*Image sourced from Meritt Thomas – Unsplash.com