In 2023, there were 45,350 pubs operating in the United Kingdom. This denoted a slight decrease from the previous year, and continued the downward trend that had been in place since at least 2000. What is the largest pub chain in the UK? In the 2023 financial year, Stonegate ranked as the selected leading pub chain in the UK in terms of units, with over 4,000 properties under its management. Meanwhile, the popular chain JD Wetherspoon had 800 properties. Why are pubs in decline in the UK? Public houses, once considered an important pillar of British communities, have faced several challenges related to changing consumer behavior. The 2007 indoor smoking ban and rising alcohol prices deterred people from drinking in pubs, sparking a trend in ‘pre-loading’ on cheap supermarket-bought alcohol before going out. More recently, the cost of living crisis in the UK has put extra pressure onto consumers' wallets and purses, making eating and drinking out too expensive for many.

As of January 2023, 37 percent of British adults stated that they visited a pub once a fortnight for food and drinks. Meanwhile, nine percent said that they bought food and drinks at pubs once a week and half of respondents said 'never'.

Mitchells & Butlers had an operating profit of approximately 312 million British pounds in 2024. This marked an increase of 41 percent from the previous year. Mitchells & Butlers manages several pub, bar and restaurant brands in the United Kingdom, including All Bar One, Ember Inns, Toby Carvery and Harvester. Mitchells & Butlers also manages the Alex bar brand in Germany.

In 2023, Stonegate was the leading selected pub chain in the United Kingdom by number of units, with 4,432 properties. Meanwhile, Greene King had the second highest number of pub sites, with 2,600. How many pubs are in the UK? There were 43,350 pubs in the United Kingdom in 2023. This represented a decrease of approximately 14,050 pubs when compared to 20 years prior. Several factors have been suggested for the decline in pubs in the UK. These include the indoor smoking ban in 2007, rising alcohol prices, and a preference for socializing at home. Younger generations are also drinking less, with many young British adults choosing not to drink at all. How much revenue do British pub chains generate? In the 2022/23 financial year, JD Wetherspoon generated 1.93 billion British pounds in revenue, which was one of the highest turnovers among the UK's leading pub chains. In fact, despite having fewer sites than Stonegate, JD Wetherspoon had over 200 million British pounds more in revenue than Stonegate.

More than half of all English residents between the ages of 16 and 64 visited pubs, bars or clubs as a free-time activity during 2017/18. Those aged 25 to 44 were the most likely to attend a pub, bar or club, with 59.3 percent of respondents in that age category visiting such an establishment.

Are pubs disappearing?

Despite most of the adult population under the age of 64 visiting pubs, bars and clubs, the frequency with which people are visiting their favorite pub is on the decline. While 33 percent of consumers reported visiting the pub on a weekly basis in 2010, this figure dropped to 29 percent by 2017. Over the same period of time, the United Kingdom saw a net reduction of approximately 7,050 in the number of pubs in operation.   New trends continue to attract pub goers

Although there are fewer venues, the nation’s pub culture has undergone somewhat of a transformation. The popularity of pubs for dining out has resulted in many businesses increasing their food offering and capitalizing on new drinking trends such as craft and non-alcoholic beers. Independent pubs, although with a seemingly greater risk of closure, have in fact increased in number: around 4,550 more independently owned pubs were in operation in the UK in 2017 compared to ten years earlier.

This may be due in part to the emergence of micro-breweries, and consumers preferring to visit traditional pubs or other independents which can cater to the niche tastes the micro-brewery allows, rather than the larger pub chains. Independently owned pubs continue to account for the largest proportion of pubs in the UK, the rest being managed, tenanted or leased by a brewer or pub company.   

The pub industry in the United Kingdom had a total estimated turnover over 22 billion British pounds. Managed, branded and franchised pubs generate the highest revenue, compared to independent, tenanted and leased premises. The UK pub industry is forcast to grow in value by 2021.

Spending in pubs, bars, and clubs in the United Kingdom increased in most months of 2024 when compared to the previous year, with October the only month when no increase in spending occurred. This indicated that spending levels had stabilized since being adversely impacted in 2020 and 2021, when lockdowns were introduced in the UK as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This statistic shows the share of the population going to pubs, bars or clubs during their free time in England, by ethnicity. According to the survey, conducted between April 2017 and March 2018, around 56 percent of white respondents went to pubs, bars and/or clubs in their free time, the most of any ethnic group.

Beer was the most consumed alcoholic drink at pubs in Great Britain in 2021. The share of people that drank beer in each country varied with England leading at 18 percent.

The number of restaurant, pub, and bar sites in Great Britain decreased across all of its segments from 2021 to 2022. In 2022, there were 11,813 food pubs in the country compared to the previous year's total of 12,115.

This statistic illustrates the change in how often people in Great Britain go to pubs compared to five years ago as of 2018, by region. Across all regions, a higher proportion of respondents stated they go to pubs less often than more often. In London, 32 percent go to pubs less often than five years ago while in Scotland this figure is even higher, at 42 percent.

This statistic displays the average weekly sales per pub of the UK managed pub and restaurant company Mitchells & Butlers from 2013 to 2018. The company's average weekly sales per pub were 23.7 thousand British pounds in 2018. Mitchells & Butlers manages several pub, bar and restaurant brands in the United Kingdom, including All Bar One, Ember Inns, Toby Carvery and Harvester. The company also manages the Alex bar brand in Germany.

In London, there were 22,316 licensed pub, bar and restaurant sites as of December 2019, the most of any TV region in Great Britain. Centrla had over 15 thousand sites and Granada over 14.8 thousand.

In 2017, standard lager had the highest rate of sales per outlet at 307 pints per week, followed by standard ale at 142 pints per outlet per week. Furthermore, premium ale had the lowest volume of sales at only 100 pints in the UK. Despite craft beer only selling 2 pints more on average than premium ale, it experienced the highest annual growth in sales per outlet. In 20176, roughly 30 percent of on trade outlets in the UK now stocked craft beer.

Sales value and consumer preferences

With the most pints sold, it comes as no surprise that the money generated each week per outlet is highest for standard Lager. Premium Lager and Craft beer, however, make more money for each outlet than the Standard products. When it comes to the question how many consumers drink different beer types, standard leads other types of beer with a total of 16 million consumers drinking the beverage.

Beer consumption and the pub landscape

In total, UK citizens consumed 69.5 liters of beer per head in 2017, the highest level seen since 2008. The number of pubs in the UK where citizens can consume beer and other alcoholic drinks has seen a long-term decline since the beginning of the century, with pubs owned by companies doing worse than independent outlets.

Sales of pub and restaurant groups all fell in Great Britain in the week prior to the government's warning to avoid them due to the growing threat of coronavirus (COVID-19). As a preventative measure, the UK Prime Minister urged the public on Monday March 16 to avoid pubs, clubs and social venues to reduce the spread of the virus. Restaurant groups experienced the biggest fall in like-for-like sales in the week prior to the announcment at 21 percent, while bar sales dropped by 14 percent. Managed pubs faired only slightly better with a 12 percent decline. In the following week, it was announced that pubs, bars and restaurants had to close to customers, other than for delivery or takeaway. Over the whole month of March, bar sales dropped by 60 percent, and restaurants by 56.4 percent compared to the same period in 2019. During the re-opening phase, bar, pub, and restaurant sales continued to be down, though the industry has shown signs of recovery.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

In 2019, responding craft beer drinkers from the United Kingdom most commonly bought craft beer weekly at a bar, pub or restaurant. Approximately 21 percent of respondents bought craft beer more frequently in pubs. Only two percent of respondents never purchased any craft beer at pubs. Consumption through retail channels had an overall slightly higher frequency than pub consumption.

This survey looks at the average spend per year by the drinks people tend to drink at pubs in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2015. Cask drinkers spend more money than any other group with an average yearly spend of 967.36 British pounds.

JD Wetherspoon operated 852 pubs in the UK and Ireland in 2022. Although this followed a declining trend in the last few years, the number of Wetherspoon outlets is still higher than over a decade ago. In 2011 the number of pubs was at 823 and climbing.

Sports and social clubs accounted for the highest number of licensed food and drink premises in Great Britain as of September 2024. In total, there were 19,619 sports and social clubs in Britain. Community pubs had the second-highest number of premises, with nearly 18,000.

This statistic displays the results of a 2018 survey, which asked adults in Great Britain how important, if at all, they think pubs are to their social life. The results show a correlation between age and importance of pubs, with just over half 18-24 year old stating it had some level of importance to their social life personally compared to only 28 percent of those over 45. The difference between the genders was much smaller; 38 percent of male respondents felt pubs are important for socializing compared to 34 percent of female respondents.