Britain is on track to shed more than one pub a day this year
Rising costs and lower spending are hitting the UK’s drinking establishments.
The UK has a serious drinking problem… The number of places where you can do it is slumping further with each passing year, per data from the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA).
Losing boozers
This year, the country is expected to lose some 378 watering holes, with independents and huge chains alike struggling in 2025 as minimum wage rises, increases to National Insurance contributions, changing preferences, energy costs, business rates, and low-spending drinkers all combine to cut the pub count further.
Like a pint at last orders, the trend over the last two decades has only been going in one direction: down.
If the BBPA’s estimate for 2025 holds, the UK will have shed over 26.6% of the public houses it had in the year 2000, when you were still allowed to smoke in pubs and the leader of the opposition was infamously reminiscing about the days when he’d drink 14 pints a day. Indeed, cultural shifts might explain much, with as many as 28% of young adults in the UK reporting in 2021 that they didn’t drink alcohol.
Draught dodgers
Admittedly, rising prices at the pumps certainly haven’t helped matters either, giving would-be punters another excuse to stay home, perhaps enjoying a few cans of beer from the supermarket instead at a fraction of the cost.
Beer in particular has been getting more expensive in British pubs, per another dataset from the BBPA. At the start of the century, you could get a pint of beer for just £1.90 on average in pubs up and down the country, with lager costing a little more at £2. In 2024, a pint of ale (including stouts like Guinness) set you back £3.94 on average, while lager cost an eye-watering £4.82 — and not far off double that in London — as average pint prices in the UK hit £4.52 overall last year.
What’s more is that the BBPA estimated that the average price of a pint of lager might have spilled over the £5 mark earlier this year, too, leading the beer authority to plead with the government to explore ways to “cap or reduce” the costs associated with running a pub in 2025. Maybe the ice that more than a quarter of 18- to 35-year-olds are reportedly putting in their pints is to cool their heads as much as their beers.
