Oregon Business highlights a few numbers from the Oregon Brewers Guild, pointing out that in addition to providing the PacNW with great, fresh beer, breweries have a huge economic impact on our state — to the tune of $2.44 billion. The industry provides work for over 5,600 Oregonians.

In Oregon, Portland has the most breweries total (66), but the brewery-per-capita crown is held by Bend, which has one brewery for every 6,400 residents. As far as battling other states, in 2010, California had 245 breweries, compared with Oregon’s 121, and Washington had just two more than us, clocking in at 123. Per capita, we’re number two, just behind little Vermont.

Numbers have likely gone up in all states in the past two years, considering the national trend. Some folks and analysts are worried that the trend will reverse, and craft breweries will be driven out of business as big boys like InBev gobble up popular craft labels and push those few national. What do you think?

Original top photo via Flickr user sufw