The largest market in Europe for alcoholic beverages is the United Kingdom. In 2019, the revenue of alcoholic drinks in the UK amounted to approximately 69 billion US dollars, roughly 20 billion more than Germany, the second-largest market with a revenue of 50 billion euros. France and Italy are the third and fourth-largest markets in Europe, with revenues of 45.1 and 36.7 billion euros respectively.
The most popular alcoholic drink in Europe is beer, with a market share of roughly 37 percent of all alcohol sold in 2018. Wine and spirits had a market share of 34 and 25 percent respectively. In 2021, the combined sales volume of beer in Europe was over 44 billion liters. Although lager remains popular, especially the craft beer market is booming in Europe. In recent years, the number of craft beer-brewing microbreweries in Europe exploded. Whereas there were roughly 2,400 small breweries in 2009, this number increased to over 8,000 by 2019.
Europe’s heaviest drinkers can be found in Czechia, which had the highest pure alcohol consumption per capita, with 14.3 liters consumed on average in 2019. Latvia and Moldova followed, with 13.2 and 12.9 liters respectively. Zooming out, it becomes apparent that Europeans consume more alcohol than people on other continents. In the top ten of countries with the highest per capita consumption, Uganda is the only non-European nation.
