Soda Consumption Drops, Although Prices Increase

Good news Mayor Bloomberg: According to Beverage Digest, soda consumption went down 1.2 percent in 2012, bringing it down to the 1996 level.

AdAge reports that while soda consumption has been steadily decreasing since 2005 (which, as Grub Street helpfully notes, is right after Super Size Me scared the nation), there was still a 1.8 percent increase in retail sales, thanks to increased pricing.

The industry, which includes energy drinks thanks to Mountain Dew expanding its market, is worth about $77 billion.

On the bright side, consumption per capita has now decreased to the 1987 levels, which means perhaps in a couple of years we'll reach the 1950s level, when portion sizes were smaller anyway.

Most popular sodas are still fairly stable; Coke reportedly gets 17 percent of the share, while Diet Coke holds 9.4 percent of sales. Pepsi ranks third at 8.9 percent, while Mountain Dew and Diet Mountain Dew saw their sales inch up. In any case, Bloomberg should be fairly happy with the change, although we imagine his failed soda ban would've caused the numbers to decrease even more in 2013.