Drink Local or Global? How About Both!

As the world has become increasingly globalized over the past two decades, so have peoples’ beer choices. Whether it’s Heineken (Dutch), Corona (Mexican), Stella Artois (Belgian), Carlsberg (Danish) or Fosters (Australian), there are many “global” beer brands these days, that you can find all over the planet. So hopheads can either stay home and enjoy beers from five different continents or they can travel the world relying on their tried and trusted brew.

But what do beer drinkers actually prefer? Is there such as thing as beer patriotism? Findings from Statista’s Global Consumer Survey suggest that most beer lovers are very internationally minded, with the largest share of respondents in three out of four major beer markets surveyed saying they like domestic and imported beer equally. Interestingly, Germany, a country famed for its love of beer (and bratwurst, but that’s another story) had the highest share of respondents saying they prefer domestic beer over imported ones.

While 52 percent of German beer drinkers said they prefer domestic brews, just 16 percent of respondents from the UK said the same, with Mexico and the U.S. in between those two extremes. Across all countries, the share of those who explicitly prefer imported beer was the lowest, suggesting that while beer lover may like to broaden their horizon, they’re not replacing but rather complementing their domestic selection of beer with some international choices.