Hong Kong drinks 22% less than it did in 2017 — and its bars have never ranked higher
Hong Kong is drinking 22% less than it did in 2017. In the same window, one of its bars was named best in the world. This isn't a contradiction — it's a shakeout that left fewer, better rooms standing.
Fact-checked 11 October 2026
Hong Kong is drinking 22% less than it did in 2017
Per-capita alcohol consumption in Hong Kong fell from 2.87 litres of pure alcohol in 2017 to 2.24 litres in 2023 — a 22% drop, one of the steepest sustained declines in the city's drinking data (Department of Health / Change4Health figures, via Vino Joy, 11 Jun 2025). The same seven years produced Bar Leone, named The World's Best Bar 2025 — the first time a Hong Kong bar has topped that list, and the first time the ceremony itself was held here. The city is drinking less and getting written about more. That isn't a contradiction. It's the story.
About 120 bars — one in ten — closed in the first half of 2025
The Bar & Club Association's own count: roughly 120 of the city's ~1,200 bars shut in H1 2025, against the 70 to 80 new bars that open in a typical year (The Standard, 4 Feb 2026). Nearly 80% of the bars that survived negotiated rent down 20-30% with landlords; among the roughly 240 that couldn't get a reduction, closures were disproportionate. This reads as much like a lease story as a drinking one — rents didn't fall as fast as footfall, and landlords who held the line lost the tenant.
Full-year 2025 grew 1.7%. The first quarter of 2026 fell 4.0%.
Total bar receipts rose 1.7% in value and 0.5% in volume across the whole of 2025 against 2024 (Census and Statistics Department, 3 Feb 2026). Then Q1 2026 reversed it: bar receipts fell 4.0% in value and 3.9% in volume year on year — while non-Chinese restaurants, competing for the same evening spend, grew 2.8% in value over the identical quarter (C&SD, 6 May 2026). Read the 4.0% alone and it looks like nightlife dying. Read it against the 2.8%, and it looks like a sector losing share of a market that's still growing — spend moving from the bar tab to the dinner bill, not out of the city.
Fewer rooms, and the best of them are ranked higher than ever
Bar Leone's world title in October 2025 wasn't a one-off. Asia's 50 Best Bars 2026 named seven Hong Kong bars, up from six the year before. The register that's winning matches what SCMP's own bar critics describe for 2026: neighbourhood rooms over spectacle, unfussy drinks over engineered ones, comfort over the dress code. That's the same direction the per-capita number points — less alcohol, spent more deliberately, in fewer rooms that now have to earn the visit.
Sources
- Per-capita alcohol consumption 2017-2023, down 22% — Vino Joy (Dept of Health / Change4Health data) · 11 June 2025
- ~120 bar closures in H1 2025, rent renegotiations — The Standard · 4 February 2026
- Full-year 2025 bar receipts +1.7% value / +0.5% volume — Census & Statistics Department · 3 February 2026
- Q1 2026 bar receipts -4.0% value / non-Chinese restaurants +2.8% — Census & Statistics Department · 6 May 2026
- Bar Leone named The World's Best Bar 2025 — South China Morning Post · 8 October 2025
- Asia's 50 Best Bars 2026: seven Hong Kong bars · 14 August 2026
Frequently asked
- Is Hong Kong's bar scene shrinking, or just changing?
- Both, in sequence. About 120 bars — one in ten — closed in the first half of 2025 as leases came up against falling footfall, but 70 to 80 open in a typical year, and the survivors include seven of Asia's 50 Best Bars for 2026 and the reigning World's Best Bar. Fewer rooms; a higher ranking than the city has ever had.
- Why did bar receipts fall 4.0% in Q1 2026 after growing all of 2025?
- They're different measures. 2025's 1.7% growth was full-year against 2024; Q1 2026's 4.0% drop is one quarter against Q1 2025, and it fell against a dining sector that grew overall — non-Chinese restaurants were up 2.8% the same quarter. That points to spend shifting within a night out toward dinner, not people staying home.
- Does drinking 22% less per person mean the industry is in decline?
- Not on the evidence of who's winning. Per-capita consumption fell from 2.87 to 2.24 litres between 2017 and 2023 — the same stretch in which a Hong Kong bar was named best in the world for the first time and the city took seven spots on Asia's top 50. Less alcohol is moving through more competitive rooms, not a shrinking industry.