Most popular UK cities for coffee shops 2021, by Google searches

With over 103 thousand Google searches, Edinburgh, Scotland, was the most searched for city for coffee shops in the United Kingdom (UK) in the 12 months prior to October 2021. Second in the ranking came the UK’s capital, London, England, with 96.6 thousand Google searches for coffee shops connected with the city.

 What are the top cafe and coffee shop brands in the UK?

Although the UK is known for its tea lovers, it is coffee shop chains that came out on top in 2021. The leading coffee shop chain in the UK in this year was Costa Coffee, which was acquired by The Coca-Cola Company in 2019. The chain had a total of 2,681 units in the UK as of Q1 2021 which was more than double that of U.S. competitor Starbucks. While large chains such as Costa Coffee, Greggs, and Starbucks were up there in a ranking of the most visited British coffee shops, local coffee shops also placed highly, being ranked third overall by the British public.

Impact of COVID-19 on cafes and coffee shops in the UK

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, beginning at the start of 2020, impacted food and drink services across the globe. This included cafes and coffee shops. Due to social distancing measures many establishments were forced to close their doors to the public for long periods of time. As a result, the UK coffee shop market value dropped by seven billion British pounds in 2020, its lowest value in the last five years.