30 January 2008 – A health conscious, aging German population is increasingly preferring non-alcoholic drinks to the country's traditional beverage, according to figures released by Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland, the German Federal Statistics Office.
2007 beer sales sank to their lowest level in 15 years, down 2.7% on year to 22 billion pints. Meanwhile, demand for non-alcoholic beverages (such as bottled water, fruit juices and soft drinks) and for beer mixed with non-alcoholic beverages rose 18.1% on year to reach 887 million pints, pointing to the growing popularity of milder-tasting drinks.
Beer consumption has been declining consistently for over ten years, partly due to an increasingly health-conscious and aging population. Germans remain the world’s second biggest per capita beer drinkers, behind the Czechs but just ahead of the Irish.
The news comes as some German breweries have had to raise beer prices in order to absorb a sharp increase in raw materials and energy costs.