Brewery per capita claims: UK, Germany, US

British beer author/blogger Roger Protz recently made this claim:

Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz said the nationwide total of breweries made the UK "undisputed top brewing country in the world".

Canadian beer author/blogger Stephen Beaumont challenged the statement. He "ran the numbers."

• Population of the United Kingdom: 61 million
• Number of Breweries: 711
• Population of Germany: 82 million
• Number of Breweries: 1250 (more or less)
• British population per brewery: 85,794
• German population per brewery: 65,600

In an email to Beaumont, Protz defended his claim:

I was at pains to stress in media interviews that I wasn’t claiming that British beer is better than, say, Belgian, Czech, or German beer, but that the choice and diversity now available here is quite astonishing.

The USA, by the way? I ran the numbers:

• Population: 307,212,123 (July 2009 estimate)
• Number of Breweries: 1,525 (July 2009 estimate)
• US population per brewery: 201,450

Not even close.

Stephen Beaumont may live in Canada, but he writes, entertainingly and adroitly, about the entire world of beer. Read the full post from Blogging at World of Beer: here.