The States That Drink the Most—And Least—Beer, Mapped and Ranked

Summer means it may be time for barbecues and beer, but some states are drinking more of their fair share than others.

Beer is still the favorite alcoholic beverage for drinkers, with 38% picking it as their alcohol of choice compared to 30% of Americans choosing liquor and 29% grabbing a wine glass, according to data from Gallup. But despite its lead, beer is still behind its peak of 47% in 1992, when Gallup first started to collect data from alcohol drinkers.

Beer is also more popular in some states than others, and you might be surprised at where the biggest beer drinkers actually live, as analyzed by Visual Capitalist.

New England Dominates Beer Consumption

Data from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that New Hampshire leads the nation in gallons of beer consumed per person. The state's annual beer consumption of 35.6 gallons per person is boosted by the fact that it relies on both in-state and out-of-state shoppers for its beer sales. The state has no sales tax and it has stores that sell alcohol near highways and state borders to make it appealing for out-of-staters to drive over the border for their beer.

But one neighbor that may not be taking advantage of New Hampshire's beer laws is Vermont, which came in third in beer consumption. The state is less than two gallons behind the top spot with 33.3 gallons of beer consumed by residents each year.

The top five states of biggest beer drinkers, by gallons per person, are:

Utah Leads the Abstainers

Utah easily makes the top spot for the least amount of beer consumed by state, with only 10.2 gallons of beer consumed per capita in a year. One factor may be the large population of Mormons who call the state home. Around 50% of Utahns identify as Mormon, according to the Pew Research Center, and the Mormon religion restricts members from drinking alcohol.

Surprisingly, two New England neighbors of beer-drinking New Hampshire and Vermont show up in the top five states that consume the least amount of beer. Rhode Island and Connecticut made the top five for their lack of beer consumption, with each state around 15 gallons of beer consumed per person in a year.

Here's the top five states that consume the least amount of beer, by gallons per person:

Beer Consumption Is Declining in the U.S.

While some states are still drinking quite a bit of beer, overall consumption of beer—and alcohol in general—has actually been going down in recent years.

The Brewers Association found that overall production and import of beer was down 5.7% in 2025 compared to a year earlier with craft brew sales declining 4% year over year. The number of breweries in the country has also leveled out after seeing a dramatic increase in the past 15 years.

And breweries aren't the only ones seeing a decline in the popularity of alcohol and beer consumption. A Gallup poll found the number of adults who occasionally drink alcohol is 54%. That's a three-year decline from a recent peak in 2022 of 67%. It's also the lowest percent of drinkers since Gallup first asked the question in 1939.

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