Thursday, March 18, 2010

2009 Breweries Per Capita – Ranking by State

The recent attention from media outlets on the 2010 U.S. Census got me pondering the topic of beer-related demographics – specifically breweries and brewpubs. Where are all of these breweries and brewpubs distributed throughout the country? Are there some areas of the country that have more than others? Certainly.  Some states just outnumber other states in terms of breweries or brewpubs. But simply looking at the absolute numbers doesn’t really tell the story. Sure California has the most brewing establishments in the US, but isn’t it also the most populated state? So what matters more: shear numbers or some other measure?

In order to get a better idea about how these breweries/brewpubs are patterned throughout the US, I decided to calculate out the breweries per capita numbers for each state – the number of brewing establishment per 100,000 residents. By taking the number of breweries in each state and dividing it out by the 2009 US Consensus estimates, I arrived at the data presented below. (It should be noted that the term ‘brewery’ in this post will refer to both breweries and brewpubs, and the term ‘state’ refers to the 50 US states plus the District of Columbia)


While this ‘Per Capita’ method has its faults (for example, states with smaller populations get a positive bias), by normalizing the data in such a fashion, it makes it possible to gauge the presence of breweries within a particular state, independent of population. While Vermont (#1) and Alaska (#5) have small populations (less than 1 million residents), these states have between three and four times as many breweries/brewpubs per capita than such venerated state as California (#18). This means that establishments in Vermont and Alaska have one-third to one-quarter of the local resources (patrons, employees, supplies, etc) as many other states, but these brewing operations are still able to thrive. Why is this? Probably because of strong, accommodating communities within the states that embrace beer culture - states like Oregon (#2), Colorado (#6), and Washington (#8) certainly exemplify this.

Of course, these data have to be taken with a proverbial grain of malt. Are these data definitive in sorting out which states have the best beer cultures in the US? Of course not. It’s merely another way to slice the information and examine how different parts of the country foster and support brewery-based businesses. If nothing else, its just plain fun to sift through stats looking at which states beat which states.

Ok, enough long-winded musing - here’s the data…

Top 5 ‘Brewery Per Capita’ States for 2009
1. Vermont (#1)      2.734 breweries per 100,000 residents
2. Oregon (#2)        2.640 breweries per 100,000 residents
3. Montana (#3)      2.564 breweries per 100,000 residents
4. Maine (#4)          2.503 breweries per 100,000 residents
5. Alaska (#5)         2.148 breweries per 100,000 residents

Worst 5 ‘Brewery Per Capita’ States for 2009
1. Mississippi (#51)       0.034 breweries per 100,000 residents
2. Alabama (#50)          0.085 breweries per 100,000 residents
3. Arkansas (#49)         0.138 breweries per 100,000 residents
4. Kentucky (#48)         0.139 breweries per 100,000 residents
5. North Dakota (#47)  0.155 breweries per 100,000 residents

If one compares the per capita rates from 2009 with those of 2008, there is some jockeying of the positions. The top 10 states see only one change - Oregon (#2), which clawed up and flip-flopped positions with Montana (#3). The bigger changes can be seen further back in the pack.

Biggest Positive Movers from 2008 to 2009
1. Indiana               (up to #20 in 2009 from #27 in 2008)
2. West Virginia     (up to #37 in 2009 from #44 in 2008)
3. North Carolina   (up to #27 in 2009 from #32 in 2008)

Biggest Negative Movers from 2008 to 2009
1. Kansas              (down to #30 in 2009 from #24 in 2008)
2. Nevada             (down to #19 in 2009 from #14 in 2008)
3. South Carolina   (down to #39 in 2009 from #35 in 2008)
4. Arkansas           (down to #49 in 2009 from #45 in 2008)

And on a personal note, I’m very pleased to see that Lug Wrench’s ‘facility’ in Rhode Island (#31) beat out the Lug Wrench ‘facility’ in Virginia (#34). So how about a big “neener neener neener” to you folks down in Virginia, Tom. : )


2009 Breweries Per Capita - Ranking by State
2009 Rank 2008 Rank State Breweries/
Brewpubs
2009 State Population Breweries Per 100,000
1 1 Vermont 17 621,760 2.734
2 3 Oregon 101 3,825,657 2.640
3 2 Montana 25 974,989 2.564
4 4 Maine 33 1,318,301 2.503
5 5 Alaska 15 698,473 2.148
6 6 Colorado 104 5,024,748 2.070
7 7 Wyoming 10 544,270 1.837
8 8 Washington 113 6,664,195 1.696
9 9 Wisconsin 80 5,654,774 1.415
10 10 Idaho 21 1,545,801 1.359
11 15 Delaware 10 885,122 1.130
12 11 New Hampshire 14 1,324,575 1.057
13 12 Nebraska 16 1,796,6190.891
14 13 New Mexico 16 2,009,671 0.796
15 17 Michigan 77 9,969,727 0.772
16 16 Hawaii 9 1,295,178 0.695
17 20 Iowa 20 3,007,856 0.665
18 18 California 238 36,961,664 0.644
19 14 Nevada 17 2,643,085 0.643
20 27 Indiana 41 6,423,113 0.638
21 19 Massachusetts 42 6,593,587 0.637
22 25 Missouri 38 5,987,580 0.635
23 21 South Dakota 5 812,383 0.615
24 23 Utah 17 2,784,572 0.611
25 22 Pennsylvania 75 12,604,767 0.595
26 26 Arizona 35 6,595,778 0.531
27 32 North Carolina 49 9,380,884 0.522
28 28 Minnesota 27 5,266,214 0.513
29 29 Distr. of Columbia 3 599,657 0.500
30 24 Kansas 14 2,818,747 0.497
31 31 Rhode Island 5 1,053,209 0.475
32 34 Maryland 27 5,699,478 0.474
33 30 Connecticut 16 3,518,288 0.455
34 33 Virginia 32 7,882,590 0.406
35 36 Ohio 44 11,542,645 0.381
36 37 Illinois 45 12,910,409 0.349
37 44 West Virginia 6 1,819,777 0.330
38 38 New York 63 19,541,453 0.322
39 35 South Carolina 14 4,561,242 0.307
40 39 Oklahoma 10 3,687,050 0.271
41 43 Tennessee 17 6,296,254 0.270
42 40 New Jersey 20 8,707,739 0.230
4341 Florida 41 18,537,969 0.221
4442 Louisiana 9 4,492,076 0.200
45 49 Georgia 16 9,829,211 0.163
46 48 Texas 39 24,782,302 0.157
47 47 North Dakota 1 646,844 0.155
48 46 Kentucky 6 4,314,113 0.139
49 45 Arkansas 4 2,889,450 0.138
50 50 Alabama 4 4,708,708 0.085
51 51 Mississippi 1 2,951,996 0.034
The number of breweries/brewpubs was taken from Beer Advocate’s BeerFly Directory. State populations were taken from the 2009 US Census estimates.

If you’ve braved it all the way down to the bottom of this post, please take a moment and let us know how your state did.

Slainte!

-JW


“The pub has always been much more than just a tavern – it is a clubhouse, a meeting place, a community center.”
-Anthony Dias Blue

1 comment:

  1. Well clearly the take-away from this information is that RI needs at least 10 more breweries/brewpubs to crack the top 10. We've got work to do!

    ReplyDelete

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