Boozed-up Britain...

We’re a boozy nation. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) annual World Health Statistics report also reveals that Britons drink heavily, consuming almost double the global average each year. Worldwide, the average person aged over 15 drinks the equivalent of 6.4 litres of pure alcohol a year. In the UK, it’s 12.3 litres.

Only 11 nations were found to have higher per capita consumption rates: Belgium, Russia, Romania, Lithuania, Moldova, Belarus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Estonia and Bulgaria.

We’re a polluted country. Pollution kills twice as many people in Britain than in the US – and 64 times as many as in Sweden, according to WHO.

In the UK, 25.7 deaths per 100,000 of the population are attributable to pollution, compared with 12.1 in the US, and 0.4 in Sweden. In Spain, there are 14.7 deaths per 100,000, in France, 17.2.

Eleven other European countries also had lower mortality rates than the UK.

However, the UK has a lower rate than any country in Africa except for Mauritius – possibly because of people cooking indoors on open fires.

Levels of fine particulate matter in the air are more than twice as high in the UK as in Sweden, at 12.4 micrograms per cubic metre, on average – but far lower than in Poland, at 25.4mcg.