Portland, Oregon had 1,923 OLCC records for the full on-premises sales - commercial license type in the September 22, 2026 dataset snapshot. The same inventory counted 858 off-premises sales records and 780 limited on-premises sales records. These are license records, not a count of unique bars: one business can have multiple records, and the inventory also includes other alcohol businesses.
Contents
- How to read these Portland bar statistics
- Portland’s largest license categories
- On-premises and hospitality categories
- Specialty, production, and related records
- Portland compared with Multnomah County
- What the county inventory adds
How to read these Portland bar statistics
The figures come from the OLCC Liquor Business Licenses & Endorsements — Portland grouped license-type query. Portland values are filtered by the dataset’s city field equal to Portland. Multnomah County values are filtered by the county field equal to Multnomah.
The measurement period is a 2026-09-22 dataset snapshot, reflecting the source dataset’s last-updated date. It is not a claim that every license began or operated throughout 2026. The counts should therefore be read as an inventory of OLCC records visible in that snapshot, with the license labels retained as published.
This distinction matters for bar research. The full on-premises sales - commercial category is a license type, not a direct count of Portland bars. The same business may hold more than one license record, while several categories cover breweries, wineries, distilleries, carriers, warehouses, wholesalers, and other alcohol-related operations. The numbers describe the licensing landscape rather than the number of doors a visitor could walk into.
Portland’s largest license categories
The Portland inventory is led by three categories associated with alcohol sales. The full on-premises sales - commercial license type had 1,923 records. Off-premises sales had 858, while limited on-premises sales had 780. Together, those three published category counts show how much larger the leading license groups are than the smaller specialty categories.
Other sizeable Portland records included 86 wholesale malt beverage and wine licenses, 80 brewery public house licenses, 56 winery - non-consumption licenses, and 53 full on-premises sales - other public locations licenses. Portland also had 41 industrial alcohol authority records, 39 distillery records, and 29 winery - consumption records.
| Portland license type | OLCC records |
|---|---|
| Full on-premises sales - commercial | 1,923 |
| Off-premises sales | 858 |
| Limited on-premises sales | 780 |
| Wholesale malt beverage and wine | 86 |
| Brewery public house | 80 |
| Winery - non-consumption | 56 |
| Full on-premises sales - other public locations | 53 |
All figures in the table are from the 2026-09-22 dataset snapshot and use the Portland city filter in the OLCC Portland grouped query. The table is useful for comparing published license categories, but it should not be added up as a unique-establishment total.
On-premises and hospitality categories
Portland’s on-premises-related records extend beyond the three largest groups. The brewery public house additional location category had 29 records, and winery - consumption additional location had 26. Full on-premises sales - caterer had 22, while distillery tasting additional location had 21.
Two categories each had 20 Portland records: warehouse and full on-premises sales - non-profit private club. The in-state certificate of approval - cera 5 years category had 17 records. Brewery - consumption had 10, matching full on-premises sales - public passenger carrier at 10. Winery - non-consumption additional location had 8.
These categories help show why a simple search for “bars” can conceal different operating models. A public house, tasting location, caterer, private club, passenger carrier, and warehouse can all appear in the same OLCC city-level inventory, but the labels do not establish that each record represents a conventional neighborhood bar. The source supplies counts and license names; it does not provide an inferred conversion into bar establishments.
The OLCC Portland grouped license-type query reports these Portland categories for the same September 22 snapshot. Because the values are grouped records, they are best used to understand category scale and distribution.
Specialty, production, and related records
The smaller Portland categories still describe a broad alcohol-business ecosystem. Certificate of approval cera 30-day had 7 records. Certificate of approval - distilled had 6, and brewery - non-consumption also had 6. Full on-premises sales - for-profit private club had 5.
Four categories each had 4 Portland records: for hire carrier, grower sales privilege - non-consumption, and certificate of approval cera 5-year. Brewery - consumption additional location had 3 records. Third party delivery facilitator had 2, and non-agent government agreement had 1.
These values are especially important to interpret carefully. A count of 1 for non-agent government agreement does not mean Portland had one bar of that kind. It means the snapshot contained one OLCC record under that exact published license label within the Portland city filter. The same rule applies to the 2 delivery facilitator records and the 3 brewery - consumption additional location records.
Taken together, the lower-count categories show that Portland’s licensing inventory includes production, distribution, transportation, delivery, growing, government-agreement, and temporary or certificate-based records alongside hospitality licenses. That breadth is a reason to use the OLCC labels directly when comparing categories rather than collapsing every record into “bars.”
Portland compared with Multnomah County
The county-level view is similar at the top but not identical. Multnomah County had 1,989 records for full on-premises sales - commercial, 898 for off-premises sales, and 795 for limited on-premises sales. Its wholesale malt beverage and wine count was 80, brewery public house was 79, winery - non-consumption was 53, and full on-premises sales - other public locations was 52.
| License type | Portland | Multnomah County |
|---|---|---|
| Full on-premises sales - commercial | 1,923 | 1,989 |
| Off-premises sales | 858 | 898 |
| Limited on-premises sales | 780 | 795 |
| Wholesale malt beverage and wine | 86 | 80 |
| Brewery public house | 80 | 79 |
| Winery - non-consumption | 56 | 53 |
| Full on-premises sales - other public locations | 53 | 52 |
The county query is the OLCC Liquor Business Licenses & Endorsements — Multnomah County grouped license-type query, also measured in the 2026-09-22 dataset snapshot. Portland is a city filter; Multnomah County is a county filter. They are different geographies, so the comparison should be read as a boundary-and-category comparison, not as a city total versus a matching municipality total.
The two geographies also match on several published counts. Both had 29 brewery public house additional location records, 26 winery - consumption additional location records, 20 warehouse records, 20 full on-premises sales - non-profit private club records, and 10 brewery - consumption records. Portland had 22 full on-premises sales - caterer records compared with 21 in the county, while its distillery tasting additional location count was 21 compared with 22 countywide.
What the county inventory adds
Multnomah County had 43 industrial alcohol authority records and 39 distillery records. It also had 29 winery - consumption records, 22 distillery tasting additional location records, 21 full on-premises sales - caterer records, 20 warehouse records, and 20 full on-premises sales - non-profit private club records.
The county’s smaller categories included 10 full on-premises sales - public passenger carrier records, 8 certificate of approval cera 30-day records, and 8 winery - non-consumption additional location records. It had 6 full on-premises sales - for-profit private club records, 5 certificate of approval - distilled, 5 brewery - non-consumption, 4 in-state certificate of approval - cera 5 years, 4 grower sales privilege - non-consumption, 3 brewery - consumption additional location, 3 certificate of approval cera 5-year, 2 for hire carrier, 1 non-agent government agreement, and 1 third party delivery facilitator.
For Portland specifically, the corresponding specialty figures were 7 certificate of approval cera 30-day, 6 certificate of approval - distilled, 6 brewery - non-consumption, 5 full on-premises sales - for-profit private club, 4 for hire carrier, 4 grower sales privilege - non-consumption, 4 certificate of approval cera 5-year, 3 brewery - consumption additional location, 2 third party delivery facilitator, and 1 non-agent government agreement.
The most useful takeaway is scope: the OLCC snapshot gives a detailed category inventory for Portland and Multnomah County, but it does not independently verify how many unique bars operate, how many are open on a particular date, or how many records belong to one business. For Portland Guides readers, the figures are a way to compare the scale and variety of alcohol-related licensing records as of September 22, 2026, with geography and license type kept explicit.