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.

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