A girl carrying beer at the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia London, last month. Photo: Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA Wire

Britain has more breweries per head of population than any other country in the world after a continuing trend of growth, according to a new study.

The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) reported that 170 new breweries have started up in the UK in the last 12 months, taking the total to 1,285, the most since the 1930s.

The industry is growing at over 10 per ceny a year, with nearly all new breweries producing cask-conditioned real ales as their core products.

Meanwhile, a “groundbreaking” £11.5 million scheme that has so far saved 28 community pubs from closure, is now spreading out from its Midlands base to other parts of the country.

Camra’s 2015 Good Beer Guide said that Project William, the brainchild of Leicester family brewer Everards, gives smaller brewers the opportunity to run pubs.

Of the 28 pubs so far reopened, 14 had closed and 13 were trading poorly.

Roger Protz, editor of the Good Beer Guide, said: “With 31 pubs a week closing, I salute Everards for their initiative in launching Project William, which saved 28 community locals and boosted sales of real ale for both Everards and its brewing partners. I urge other breweries throughout the country to investigate launching similar schemes.”

Protz said real ale was the only success story in a declining beer market, adding: “New breweries, making handcrafted beers, continue to come on stream while many long-standing regional and family breweries are expanding with new equipment and new brands. Real ale has almost doubled its market share over the past decade.”

Camra said the continued growth across the UK has been driven by small independent breweries, many of whom are experimenting with the beers they brew, leading to even greater choice for drinkers.

Mike Benner, managing director of the Society of Independent Brewers, said: “This latest Good Beer Guide portrays a British brewing industry in excellent health. New brewery openings over the last year take the total number of brewers in the UK to over 1,200, a figure that would have been almost unimaginable to readers of this guide in the 1970s.”