How many pubs are there in the UK? Closures and beer sales

Key figures

• 12pwhat a pub keeps from an average pint after tax and costs, according to research for the BBPA in 2024. About £1 in every £3 spent in pubs goes in tax.
• £34.4bnadded to the UK economy by beer and pubs in a year, according to the same research.

How many pubs there are, year by year

The BBPA counted 60,800 pubs in the UK in 2000 and 44,650 in 2025. The biggest single fall was in 2017, when the count dropped by 1,950.

Pubs in the UK at the end of each year, as counted by the BBPA. Tap or hover on the chart to see each year. The table below has every figure.

UK pubs, from the BBPA's figures as published by the Morning Advertiser on 27 May 2025 and 6 May 2026. The change on the year is our own subtraction. The BBPA revises its series, so older editions sometimes gave different totals for the same year: in 2010, for example, it said Britain had about 52,500 pubs. The yearly series is rounded to the nearest 50, which is why the BBPA's separate count of 336 net closures in 2025 differs slightly from the change shown here.

Other counts use different definitions and come out lower. Altus Group, using government business rates data, counted 38,989 pubs in England and Wales at the end of 2024, including empty pubs being offered to let.

How fast pubs are closing

Closures peaked during the financial crisis. In the first half of 2009 the BBPA said 52 pubs were closing every week, a record. The rate then slowed, and in recent years has been about six or seven a week.

Some figures count every closure; others count net closures, after new pubs opening are taken off. Full Fact found in 2012 that this difference explained why quoted weekly figures varied so much.

How much we drink

Alcohol drunk per person in the UK rose from 7.4 litres of pure alcohol in 1980 to 7.9 litres in 1990 and peaked in 2004, at 9.4 to 9.5 litres depending on the edition of the BBPA's figures. It has fallen most years since.

• 20088.9 litres per person, 6.1% below the 2004 peak.
• 2012down 3.3% on 2011, the lowest level this century, and 16% lower than eight years earlier.
• 2013down again, the seventh fall in nine years and the lowest for 23 years, according to the BBPA in April 2014. Its Statistical Handbook later in 2014 put consumption 18% below the 2004 peak.

Litres of pure alcohol per person, from the BBPA's Statistical Handbook as reported at the time by The Caterer, The Grocer, MCA, BuzzFeed and the Morning Advertiser. The BBPA bases these figures on alcohol tax data.

Beer and beer tax

UK breweries produced 3,876 million litres of beer in 2025, about 6.8 billion pints, according to HMRC. The government took £3.5 billion in Alcohol Duty from beer that year, out of £12.5 billion from all alcohol.

From the HMRC Alcohol Bulletin, published 28 August 2026, calendar years. HMRC notes that production figures for November 2024 to March 2025 are partly estimated.

Beer duty rose by inflation plus 2% a year under the duty escalator, brought in in 2008. The escalator was scrapped in the 2013 Budget, when beer duty was cut by a penny a pint. Since 1 August 2023 alcohol has been taxed by strength under a new system, with lower rates for draught beer sold in pubs.

Breweries

The number of UK breweries grew fast in the 2000s and 2010s. The BBPA's 2014 Statistical Handbook counted 1,442, nearly three times as many as in 2000. Since 2023 the number has been falling, with 137 net closures in 2025, almost three a week. Closures slowed sharply in the first half of 2026.

SIBA figures are from its UK Brewery Tracker, published in January and August 2026 and February 2025.

What beer and pubs are worth

Research by Oxford Economics for the BBPA, published in September 2024, found that beer and pubs added more than £34.4 billion to the UK economy in a year, up from £26.2 billion in its previous study, and paid more than £17.4 billion in tax. It found that about £1 in every £3 spent in a pub goes in tax, that tax makes up 40% of brewing turnover, and that pubs keep an average of 12p from every pint after tax and costs.

In October 2026 the BBPA said an average pub pays about £200,000 a year to HMRC, and that the 360 closures it expects in 2026 would cost about 5,000 jobs.