The alcoholic brew also plays an important role in the life of a Polish person – over 40 percent of central European Slavs began drinking alcohol by consuming beer. Furthermore, in the last twenty years, the average beer consumption per capita almost doubled and amounted to 5.53 liters in 2018. In terms of regional consumption, the Mazowieckie (Masovian) voivodeship gathered the biggest population of beer devotees. In 2019, the region had the highest sold value of beer in Poland, accounting for 2.33 billion zloty.
Beer also remains the most popular type of alcohol consumed in every corner of the country. Seven percent of regular beer drinkers only consumed beer from regional and craft breweries. It is important to note that over half of the Polish population do not consider beer to be alcohol. Still, year after year, Poles show their devotion to alcoholic lager as it continues to dominate national beer sales.
Another trend slowly but steadily emerges on this Slavic market - the popularity of non-alcoholic beer has been rising, accounting for nine percent of purchased beer products in 2019. The majority of Poles tended to opt for the non-alcoholic beer option especially when meeting up with friends, among other reasons. Moreover, the alcohol content of beer, in general, is systematically decreasing. One of the major reasons for that is the weather – longer summers result in numerous hot days, on which Polish consumers prefer lighter beverages. Taking these factors into consideration, non-alcoholic beer might become a strong market segment in the Slavic land of beer.
