Eurostat: beer production in the EU down by 0.7 per cent in 2025

Brussels – Blonde, dark, or red. Whether it’s large breweries or small microbreweries, it makes little difference. Beer production in the European Union is holding up. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, Member States produced 34.4 billion litres of beer in 2025, recording a slight fall of 0.7 per cent compared with 2024, but an increase of 2.2 per cent compared with 2020. Most of the beer produced, 32.3 billion litres, contained more than 0.5 per cent alcohol. Meanwhile, low-alcohol and/or non-alcoholic beer totalled 2.1 billion litres.

At the top of the rankings—taking into account the total volume of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer produced— was Germany with 7.4 billion litres produced, accounting for 21.6 per cent of beer sold in the EU, followed by Spain (5.3 billion litres; 15.5 per cent of the EU total), and Poland (3.5 billion litres; 10.2 per cent). The top five was rounded off by the Netherlands (2.4 billion litres; 6.9 per cent) and France (2.1 billion litres; 6 per cent). Italy – including San Marino – produced 3.4 billion litres of beer, but this figure only includes beer with an alcohol content of more than 0.5 per cent. Among the European countries producing the least amount of alcoholic beer were Norway  (222 million litres), followed by Slovakia (160 million), Estonia (112 million litres), Latvia (65 million litres), and Montenegro (28 million litres).

For the production of non-alcoholic beer or with an alcohol content of less than 5 per cent, Spain stood out (285 million litres), alongside Poland (280 million litres). Next came the Netherlands (223 million), the Czech Republic (123 million), and Romania (103 million). Among the countries with lower production figures, are Hungary (37 million), Austria (31 million), Portugal and Slovakia (both with 7 million), Norway (12 million), Estonia and Latvia (one million). Sweden, Finland, and Lithuania did not reach one million. For Ireland, the figure for non-alcoholic beer produced is not available.