(source: SME)
The average inhabitant of Slovakia last year drank 'just' 120 large beers, a 30-year low, the Slovak Statistics Office reported on August 5, which happens to mark International Beer Day.
Every Slovak thus drank an average of 60.2 litres of beer in 2021, which is 17 half-litre servings (or 15 pints) fewer than in 2020. The 12-percent year-on-year drop in beer consumption was due to the pandemic, according to the Statistics Office.
Prior to the pandemic, consumption of beer had been recording a slow increase after 25 years of consistent falls since 1990, which the statisticians say was a record year. Back in 1990, Slovakia consumed 96 litres of beer per person (children are included in the calculation, but hopefully not in the consumption). In the years prior to the pandemic, consumption hovered around 70 litres a year.
"A drop of more than 10 percent has only occurred twice in the last 30 years: after the onset of the financial crisis in 2010 and then last year, the second year that society struggled with the Covid pandemic," Róbert Vlačuha, head of quality of life statistics at the Statistics Office, said.
Slovakia's neighbour the Czech Republic traditionally tops Europe's beer consumption rankings. In 2020, it ranked first at 135 litres of beer per capita, followed by Austria at 100 litres and Germany at 95 litres, according to data from statista.com, as quoted by the Statistics Office. Slovakia came in tenth in the 2020 ranking.
Europe's least enthusiastic beer drinkers are in Greece (28 litres per person per year), Italy (31 litres) and France (33 litres).
