Office coffee statistics UK (2026)
The UK drinks approximately 98 million cups of coffee every day, according to the British Coffee Association.
A large share of those cups gets poured, brewed or dispensed at work, which makes coffee one of the few workplace perks with a genuinely measurable footprint. This page gathers the most useful UK coffee statistics for 2026 in one place, covering consumption, office coffee, prices, the coffee shop market and sustainability.
UK coffee statistics at a glance
How much coffee does the UK consume?
- The UK consumes approximately 98 million cups of coffee per day (British Coffee Association).
- The coffee industry supports more than 210,000 UK jobs (British Coffee Association).
- Journalists are the UK’s heaviest workplace coffee drinkers at 3.62 cups per day, with healthcare workers close behind on 3.60 (Pressat survey of 20,000 UK workers, 2025)
- The UK branded coffee shop market is worth £6.8 billion across 12,313 outlets (Allegra World Coffee Portal, February 2026)
- A regular latte averaged £3.64 after a 5% year-on-year rise (World Coffee Portal, Project Café UK 2025)
- 11 of 12 branded instant coffees rose in price by at least 8% year on year, with one price up 40% (Which?, March 2025)
- Arabica futures passed US $4.30/lb in February 2025, the first new record since 1977 (Perfect Daily Grind)
- There are 33,200 coffee-to-go machines in UK workplaces and public sites, up 8% in a year (AVA 2025 Census, via FMJ)
- 80% of UK households buy instant coffee for home consumption (British Coffee Association)
- The UK gets through an estimated 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups a year and fewer than 1 in 400 are recycled (House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee)
How much coffee does the UK drink?
UK coffee consumption per day now sits at roughly 98 million cups, the British Coffee Association reports. Globally, around two billion cups are consumed every day, so British drinkers account for close to one cup in every twenty poured worldwide.
Instant coffee still dominates at home. The British Coffee Association finds that 80% of UK households buy instant coffee for in-home consumption, with the habit strongest among those aged 65 and over. Ground coffee and single-serve pods are growing fastest among 16 to 34 year olds and now represent 16% of all coffee buyers.
Out-of-home drinking is habitual rather than occasional. According to the same British Coffee Association data, 80% of people who visit coffee shops do so at least once a week, and 16% visit daily.
Office coffee consumption: how much do UK workers drink?
The UK’s heaviest professional coffee drinkers are journalists, averaging 3.62 cups per working day, according to a 2025 Pressat survey of 20,000 UK workers. Healthcare workers follow on 3.60 cups, then police officers (2.52), drivers (2.50), company executives (2.40) and IT support staff (2.39). At the other end of the scale, plumbers (1.28) and telesales workers (1.23) drink the least.
The same survey, covered by Global Coffee Report, found that 20.32% of workers feel a significant effect when they miss their usual coffee. For anyone managing an office, that is a fifth of the workforce running below par whenever the machine is empty.
Workplace coffee supply is growing as an industry too. The Automatic Vending Association’s 2025 Census, reported by FMJ, puts UK vending and automated retail revenue at £3.78 billion in 2025, up 3.3% on 2024. Coffee-to-go machines reached 33,200 units, an 8% annual rise, and hot beverage revenues grew 4.1%. Payment habits have shifted almost entirely away from coins: 95% of pay-vend machines now take cashless payment and 84% of transactions on those machines are cashless.
That growth matches what we see on the ground at Your Refreshments, where demand for bean-to-cup office coffee machines with fresh milk and plant-based options has become the default request from London workplaces rather than the upgrade.
The cost of coffee in 2026
Arabica coffee futures passed US $4.30 per pound in February 2025, roughly 70% higher than a year earlier and the first new record since 1977, Perfect Daily Grind reported. That surge in green coffee costs has been working its way through UK shelf prices ever since.
Which? analysis published in March 2025 tracked 12 branded instant coffees across six supermarkets and found 11 of them rose by at least 8% year on year, half by more than 10%. The steepest single increase was 40%, with a 200g jar of Nescafé Original up 14% on average across the retailers stocking it. Own-brand instant coffees slightly decreased in price over the same period.
The pressure is easing at the headline level. The ONS consumer price inflation bulletin for January 2026 put CPI at 3.0% and food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation at 3.6%, with coffee, tea and cocoa making a small downward contribution to the monthly change. Prices remain well above their 2023 base, but the sharpest rises look to be behind us.
In coffee shops, World Coffee Portal data from Project Café UK 2025 put the average price of a regular latte at £3.64 after a 5% annual rise, with average spend per coffee shop visit reaching £6.23. Against those figures, machine-dispensed office coffee at pence per cup is one of the cheaper morale investments a facilities budget can make.
The UK coffee shop market in 2026
The UK branded coffee shop market is now worth £6.8 billion, having grown 3.5% over 12 months to reach 12,313 outlets, according to Allegra World Coffee Portal’s Project Café UK 2026 (published February 2026). The market added 420 net new stores over the year.
The January 2025 edition of the same research put Costa Coffee on 2,671 outlets, Greggs on 2,610 and Starbucks on 1,354, with UK drive-thru sites reaching 855. It also found 60% of coffee shop visitors going multiple times per week, up from 56% a year earlier.
World Coffee Portal forecasts the market will reach 13,260 outlets by January 2030, with sales exceeding £8 billion.
Coffee, jobs and the UK economy
The coffee industry creates more than 210,000 UK jobs, according to the British Coffee Association. Its most recent economic assessment, produced with the Centre for Economics and Business Research, estimated the industry’s total output contribution at £17.7 billion, with £9.1 billion in gross value added (2017 figures).
Coffee is also more domestic than it looks. For an average cup consumed in the UK, up to 76% of its value is estimated to be produced in the UK, across roasting, distribution, retail and hospitality.
Coffee cups and sustainability
The UK uses an estimated 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year, and fewer than 1 in 400 (0.25%) are recycled, according to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee. The committee’s report, published in 2018 and still the most cited official estimate, also found that around 4% of disposable cups are littered, equating to 500,000 cups dropped every day, and that the UK produces 30,000 tonnes of coffee cup waste annually.
The workplace angle is straightforward. Offices that switch from takeaway rounds to an on-site machine with proper cups remove a daily stream of single-use waste at source, and cut the per-cup cost at the same time.
Sources
Allegra World Coffee Portal. “Project Café UK 2025.” World Coffee Portal, 30 Jan. 2025, www.worldcoffeeportal.com/news/value-in-the-spotlight-as-competition-heats-up-in-6-1bn-uk-branded-coffee-shop-market/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.
“Project Café UK 2026.” World Coffee Portal, 3 Feb. 2026, www.worldcoffeeportal.com/news/6-8bn-uk-branded-coffee-shop-market-achieves-3-5-outlet-growth-full-story-data-download/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.
British Coffee Association. “Coffee Consumption.” British Coffee Association, britishcoffeeassociation.org/coffee-consumption/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.
FMJ. “Smart Fridges and Cashless Tech Drive Automated Retail Boom as Britain’s Vending Industry Hits £3.78bn.” FMJ, 21 May 2026, www.fmj.co.uk/smart-fridges-and-cashless-tech-drive-automated-retail-boom-as-britains-vending-industry-hits-3-78bn/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.
Global Coffee Report. “UK Coffee Consumption Trends Revealed.” Global Coffee Report, 17 July 2025, www.gcrmag.com/uk-coffee-consumption-trends-revealed/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.
House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee. Disposable Packaging: Coffee Cups. 2018, publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/657/65705.htm. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.
Office for National Statistics. “Consumer Price Inflation, UK: January 2026.” Office for National Statistics, 2026, www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/january2026. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.
Perfect Daily Grind. “Coffee Prices Record Highs for Roasters.” Perfect Daily Grind, 13 Feb. 2025, perfectdailygrind.com/2025/02/coffee-prices-record-highs-roasters/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.
Pressat. “Coffee Survey.” Pressat, 2025, pressat.co.uk/coffee-survey/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.
Which? “Soaring Price of Branded Instant Coffee Revealed.” Which?, 15 Mar. 2025, www.which.co.uk/news/article/soaring-price-of-branded-instant-coffee-revealed-aYhBJ0t8E08K. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.
Sources and refresh policy
Every statistic on this page was checked against its named source on 11 August 2026, and nothing here relies on second-hand round-ups. If you cite a figure, please link the original source alongside this page. Journalists and researchers are welcome to reuse any of the data above with attribution.
This page is reviewed and updated annually, with the next scheduled refresh in August 2027 once Project Café UK 2027, the next AVA census and updated ONS price data are published. If you are weighing up coffee vending machines for your own workplace, the Your Refreshments team can talk through cup volumes, machine sizing and cost per cup for your headcount.
UK coffee statistics FAQs
How much coffee do UK workers drink?
It varies sharply by profession. A 2025 Pressat survey of 20,000 UK workers found journalists drink the most at 3.62 cups per working day, followed by healthcare workers on 3.60. Police officers average 2.52 cups, company executives 2.40, while plumbers (1.28) and telesales workers (1.23) drink the least.
How many cups of coffee are consumed in the UK per day?
Approximately 98 million cups per day, according to the British Coffee Association. That places the UK behind traditional tea only by habit, with coffee now embedded in most working days.
How much does a cup of coffee cost in the UK in 2026?
World Coffee Portal put the average regular latte at £3.64 in January 2025 after a 5% annual rise, and prices have continued to edge up since. Branded instant coffee rose at least 8% year on year for 11 of 12 brands tracked by Which? in early 2025, driven by record arabica costs.
How big is the UK coffee shop market in 2026?
The branded coffee shop market is worth £6.8 billion across 12,313 outlets, per Allegra World Coffee Portal’s Project Café UK 2026, and is forecast to pass 13,260 outlets by January 2030.
What percentage of UK households buy instant coffee?
80% of UK households buy instant coffee for in-home consumption, according to the British Coffee Association, with the strongest uptake among people aged 65 and over.
How many disposable coffee cups does the UK use each year?
An estimated 2.5 billion per year, of which fewer than 1 in 400 are recycled, according to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee. Around 500,000 cups are littered every day.
