Which Suffolk town has the most pubs per person?
The Nutshell Pub in Bury St Edmunds is certainly Suffolk's the smallest pub, but which Suffolk town has biggest number of pubs per person? - Credit: Archant
Suffolk has lots of great pubs, but which Suffolk town has the most pubs per person?
Using data from the census and Camra we found their pub-to-population ratios which showed some, particularly a few of the bigger towns, leave something to be desired in the number of public houses.
But which Suffolk town wins?
The Harbour Inn in Southwold is one of nine pubs - Credit: Sarah Lucy Brown
Southwold comes out well on top, with nine pubs to a population of 1098, giving a total number of residents per pub of 120, meaning that the town's entire population could probably fit inside them.
However, this must be considered alongside the fact the town is generally crawling with tourists, which aren't counted in the population stats, and yet still drink in the pubs.
It is followed by another tourist town, Aldeburgh, which offers a pub for every 493 people, while coming up in third place is Clare, with a very impressive 507 people per pub.
The small town of Clare has more than twice as many pubs per person than anywhere that isn't a seaside tourist destination - Credit: Phil Morley
Framlingham is in fourth place with 835 people per pub, closely followed by Needham Market with 905, Bungay (1025.4 people per pub), Woodbridge (1031 people per pub), Leiston (1160.75 people per pub), and Halesworth (1389 people per pub).
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They are followed by Beccles, Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury, all of which have approximately 1600 people per pub.
Hadleigh, Stowmarket and Newmarket all sit in the middle of the table, at around 2000 people per pub, followed closely by Felixstowe, which has 2618.2 people per public house.
While Ipswich has the most pubs in Suffolk at 57, its large population ensures that it doesn't win out on pubs per person - Credit: Charlotte Bond
Filling out the bottom of the leaderboard are Ipswich, Lowestoft, Mildenhall and Haverhill, which have population: pub ratios between 1:3000 and 1:4000, but one town, in particular, is really disappointing.
Kesgrave has a population of 18,975 and only two pubs. This gives Kesgrave a person per pub ratio of 9487.5, almost a hundred times worse than Southwold.
It sort of has an excuse, however. From Kesgrave, it's quite easy to go to the pub in Woodbridge or Ipswich, plus the town grew from almost nothing throughout the 20th century, so it doesn't have the legacy drinking establishments found across the rest of the county.
The full list of towns and their population to pub statistics can be found below.
| Town | Number of Pubs | Population | Population per pub |
Southwold | 9 | 1098 | 122 |
Aldeburgh | 5 | 2466 | 493.2 |
Clare | 4 | 2028 | 507 |
Framlingham | 4 | 3342 | 835.5 |
Needham Market | 5 | 4528 | 905.6 |
Bungay | 5 | 5127 | 1025.4 |
Woodbridge | 11 | 11341 | 1031 |
Leiston | 4 | 4643 | 1160.75 |
Halesworth | 4 | 5558 | 1389.5 |
Beccles | 8 | 13040 | 1630 |
Bury St eds | 25 | 41310 | 1652.4 |
Sudbury | 13 | 22213 | 1708.692308 |
Hadleigh | 4 | 8150 | 2037.5 |
Newmarket | 10 | 20384 | 2038.4 |
Stowmarket | 9 | 19280 | 2142.222222 |
Felixstowe | 9 | 23564 | 2618.222222 |
Brandon | 3 | 9145 | 3048.333333 |
Ipswich | 57 | 179835 | 3155 |
Lowestoft | 25 | 80849 | 3233.96 |
Mildenhall | 4 | 13388 | 3347 |
Haverhill | 7 | 27041 | 3863 |
Kesgrave | 2 | 18975 | 9487.5 |
