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You are here: Home / Articles / 20+ interesting stats and amazing facts about non-alcoholic beer

20+ interesting stats and amazing facts about non-alcoholic beer

By Tom Hallett on January 19, 2022

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The non-alcoholic beer revolution is here, and there are no signs of its popularity waning.

Here are 23 facts and stats about low and no beer.

20+ interesting stats and amazing facts about non-alcoholic beer
  • Sales of non-alcoholic beer
  • Drinking habits
  • Marketing and promotion
  • History of non-alcoholic beer
  • Miscellaneous facts about non-alcoholic beer

Sales of non-alcoholic beer

  • UK retail sales of non-alcoholic beer grew 37% in the UK in 2018/2019 1
  • However, worldwide growth of low and no alcohol beer slowed to just 0.5% year-on-year in 2019-20 2
  • Despite this, it’s expected that the global market for low and no alcohol drinks will grow 31% between 2021 and 2024 2
  • Non-alcoholic beer accounts for 92% of worldwide sales in the low and no drinks market 2
  • Almost 1 in 2 Germans drink non-alcoholic beer, which accounts for 7% of all retail beer sales in Germany 3

Drinking habits

  • Almost 6 in 10 (58%) of people who drink no and low alcohol drinks switch between non-alcoholic and alcoholic options in the same sitting 2
  • Only 14% of drinkers of non-alcoholic drinks don’t drink alcohol at all 2
  • 1 in 5 people in the UK don’t drink alcohol 4
  • Alcohol was the cause of more than 5,600 deaths in England in 2018 – this was 2% lower than 2017 and an increase of 7% in 2008 5
  • In 2017, the average Brit drank 9.7 litres of alcohol in 2017 – this compares to 8.7 litres for the average American and 10.8 litres for the average Australian 6
  • Lithuanians are the biggest drinkers in the world, drinking an average of 12.3 litres per person in 2017 6
  • 1 in 7 UK adults planned to do Dry January in 2022 7
  • Searches for “Dry January” on Google are declining year on year in the UK but increasing year on year in the US 8 9
  • Taking a month off booze can help you cut down your alcohol intake in the longer term 10

Marketing and promotion

  • In the EU and UK, drinks above 1.2% ABV don’t need to include the ingredients or nutritional info on the packaging 11 12
  • In most regions, retailers will insist that non-alcoholic beer can only be bought by those of legal drinking age
    UK law allows beers up to 5.5% ABV a “tolerance” of 0.5% ABV either side of what’s shown on the label 12
  • In the UK, drinks under 1.2% ABV don’t need to include the alcoholic strength on the labelling 12

History of non-alcoholic beer

  • Low alcohol beer under 3% ABV (alcohol by volume) – known as “small beer” – was a common drink up until the 19th century 13
  • The first modern non-alcoholic beers appeared in the 1970s with the launch of NA lagers from Clausthaler (1972) and Ambar (1976) 14 15

Miscellaneous facts about non-alcoholic beer

  • Drinking non-alcoholic beer can give you the same feeling of reward as drinking alcoholic beer 16
  • You can’t get drunk on 0.5% ABV (alcohol by volume) beer 17
  • Non-alcoholic beers are always lower in calories than their equivalent full-strength (because alcohol contains 7 calories per gram) 18
  • Non-alcoholic beer is likely to be higher in sugar than standard strength beer because of the way it’s made (although many non-alcoholic beers contain very low amounts of sugar) 18

References

  1. Attitudes Towards Low- and Non-alcoholic Drink (Mintel)
  2. No and Low-Alcohol Products Gain Share Within Total Beverage Alcohol (IWSR)
  3. Non-alcoholic beers are becoming increasingly popular in Germany (German Beer Association)
  4. Adult drinking habits in Great Britain: 2017 (ONS)
  5. Statistics on Alcohol: Data Tables (NHS)
  6. Health at a Glance 2019 (OECD)
  7. More people than ever are planning to go alcohol-free this January (Alcohol Change)
  8. Google Trends
  9. Google Trends
  10. Evaluation of Dry January 2019 (Alcohol Change)
  11. Alcohol labelling (European Commission)
  12. The Food Labelling Regulations 1996
  13. Why everyone in England drank beer for breakfast (Lancaster Brewery)
  14. How to change the world with non alc beer (Clausthaler)
  15. 40 years of non-alcoholic beer in Spain (Ambar)
  16. Brain Responses to Anticipation and Consumption of Beer with and without Alcohol (Chemical Senses)
  17. Why you can’t get drunk on 0.5% alcohol-free beer (Steady Drinker)
  18. Calories, carbohydrates and sugar in alcohol-free beer (Steady Drinker)

Related posts:

Non-alcoholic beer wholesalers in the UK
18 seemingly idiotic things to say to people who drink alcohol
Why we shouldn't moan about price of alcohol-free beer
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Disclosures

*If you buy something after you visit links marked with *, I might receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

†Reviews marked with † feature beers I didn't pay for (usually because the producers gave them to me for free). My aim is to review these beers the same as beers I've paid for but you may want to bear this in mind when reading the review.

Find out more on my disclosures page.

About Tom Hallett

New(ish) dad, slow runner and Border Terrier owner (or is it the other way round?) on a mission to find the world's best low-alcohol and alcohol-free beers.

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