Breweries Per Capita

Jay Brooks

15 years ago

Since it’s a statistics kind of week, I thought I’d share this other list recently released by the Brewers Association. I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s Breweries Per Capita, essentially the number of breweries in each state, divided by the population. Since it makes no difference what size the brewery is, a single brewpub producing 10,000 barrels a year is counted the same as one making 10,000,000 barrels. Still, it’s interesting to look at it this way, too, even though it’s doesn’t mean that much. I doubt there will be dancing in the streets of towns throughout Vermont over this news.

California, with more than twice the breweries of the next nearest state, is ranked only 21st. Colorado, who recently overtook California for total barrels brewed by a single state, is ranked 5th.

Breweries Per Capita

The first figure is the number of breweries and the last is the per brewery population based on the US Census Bureau estimates.

19 Vermont 32,698
27 Montana 35,831
93 Oregon 40,753
31 Maine 42,466
103 Colorado 47,956
14 Alaska 49,021
10 Wyoming 53,267
100 Washington 65,492
7 Delaware 84,548
66 Wisconsin 85,272
15 New Hampshire 87,721
16 Idaho 95,239
15 Nebraska 118,895
16 New Mexico 124,022
70 Michigan 142,906
5 South Dakota 160,839
8 Hawaii 161,025
16 Nevada 162,510
17 Kansas 164,831
75 Pennsylvania 165,977
221 California 166,320
18 Iowa 166,809
38 Massachusetts 170,999
14 Utah 195,459
29 Missouri 203,848
5 Rhode Island 210,158
16 Connecticut 218,828
28 Indiana 227,743
22 Minnesota 237,291
32 Virginia 242,784
26 Arizona 250,007
21 Maryland 268,267
42 Ohio 273,474
33 North Carolina 279,467
3 DC 291,031
6 West Virginia 302,411
41 Illinois 314,672
14 South Carolina 319,986
56 New York 348,041
14 Tennessee 443,921
39 Florida 469,957
18 New Jersey 482,370
7 Oklahoma 520,337
16 Georgia 605,359
7 Kentucky 609,892
1 North Dakota 641,481
36 Texas 675,749
4 Arkansas 713,848
5 Alabama 932,380
4 Louisiana 1,102,699
1 Mississippi 2,938,618