Number of breweries in the Netherlands 2023, by province

In the last few years, the number of beer breweries in the Netherlands has grown exponentially. Whereas in 2012, there were only roughly 180 active beer breweries, by 2023 this number had increased to more than 900. 216 of those beer breweries could be found in the province Noord-Brabant, making Noord-Brabant the center of beer brewing in the country. Noord-Holland came second, with 163 breweries. Only 13 breweries could be found in Flevoland, the smallest number of breweries per province in the Netherlands.

 Drenthe lowest number of breweries per 100,000 inhabitants 

  Noord-Brabant and Noord-Holland also topped the 2017 ranking of number of breweries per 100,000 inhabitants. That year, there were four breweries for every 100,000 people in Noord-Brabant, and 3.9 in Noord-Holland. The last spot in this ranking was reserved for Drenthe, which only had 1.4 breweries for every 100,000 inhabitants.

Beer production volume

  Together, Dutch breweries produced roughly 22 million hectoliters of beer. Unlike the number of breweries, the production volume of beer did not increase similarly fast. On the contrary, the production of beer in the Netherlands decreased slightly between 2008 and 2021. This would suggest that even though more breweries produce beer, the average beer production per brewery decreased in this period.