Some more interesting snippets from the BBPA Statistical Handbook...
2010 average price of a pint of beer in the UK off-trade:
Supermarkets: £1.02 (= £3.16 for 4x440ml)
Off-licences and convenience stores: £1.29 (= £4.00)
Average: £1.08 (= £3.35)
2010 average price of a pint of beer in the UK on-trade: £2.69
Average number of alcohol units consumed per week by social class:
Managerial and professional: 14.6
Intermediate: 13.4
Routine and manual: 10.6
Average: 12.5
(thus giving the lie to the common notion that the poor drink more)
Average strength of beer produced in the UK:
1900: 1054.9 OG
1910: 1053.0 OG
1918: 1030.6 OG (low point during WW1)
1920: 1042.6 OG
1930: 1042.5 OG
1940: 1038.5 OG
1946: 1032.6 OG (1940s low point, actually after the end of the war)
1950: 1037.0 OG
1960: 1037.4 OG
1970: 1036.9 OG
1980: 1037.3 OG
1990: 1037.7 OG
2000: 4.17% ABV
2010: 4.22% ABV
In fact, from 1950 to the end of the original gravity system in 1992, the average OG was always within the range 1036.9-1038.2, although this masked the long-term decline of mild and an offsetting reduction in the strength of bitter.
In 1900, there were 34.3 million barrels of beer produced, as opposed to 28.0 in 2010, at a considerably higher strength, and for a much smaller population.