The scale of the economic impact of beer is one of the reasons for the founding of JCB. It is our working hypothesis that brewing is the least studied major economic sector in terms of its cultural role.

In Canada beer, with sales of $7,864,437,000.00 in 2003, is bigger than:

• Total attendance at movie theatres and drive-ins with sales of $1.2 billion in 2002/03: 15.3% of beer.
All wheat at $2.47 billion: 31.5% of beer.
The estimated budget of the Government of Nova Scotia for 2003 of $5.327 billion: 68% of beer.
All charitable giving of $6,500,000,000: 71% of beer.
Beer is smaller than the military, however, which has a $13.5 billion budget for 2006: 171% of beer in 2003.

The beer sales figures do not even include retail bar and restaurant costs, just the wholesale. They also do not include the cost of that bag of chips you had to go with the beer.

The same scale of economic force can be seen in the United States. The Beer Institute has determined the 2005 figures for the bigness of beer and the conclusion is...it is big. The industry today includes more than 2,400 brewers and beer importers, 1,908 beer wholesalers, and 551,000 retail establishments. The industry's economic ripple effect benefits packaging manufacturers, shipping companies, agriculture, and other businesses whose livelihood depends on the beer industry. Directly and indirectly, the beer industry employs approximately 1.78 million Americans, paying them $54 billion in wages and benefits. The industry pays over $30 billion in business, personal and consumption taxes, including $9.2 billion in excise taxes. The total economic contribution of beer to the US economy is now $65,914,557,648 - which is larger than the military budget for each of the UK, China or Russia but oddly only 80% or so of the total value of Google.