Britons get drunk more often than anyone in world

THE British get drunk more often than people in any other country, a study says.

Drinkers in England reported being intoxicated an average of 51 times a year – almost once a week and the most frequent out of 36 countries.

The US ranked second in the Global Drugs survey of nearly 124,000 adults, with its drinkers getting drunk 50.3 times a year, followed by Canada, Australia, Denmark and India.

It contradicts recent NHS figures which showed a sharp decline in the number of adults drinking at harmful levels, from 26 per cent in 2011 to 21 per cent in 2017.

Professor Adam Winstock, a consultant psychiatrist and study leader, said: ‘In the UK we don’t tend to do moderation. We end up getting drunk as the point of the evening. Until culture changes and we become more European and moderate in our drinking – we might have to bite the bullet and think about how to advise people to get drunk drinking less.

‘Getting drunk carries risks of injury and health harm. We get told too much is bad, and it is, but current guidelines fail to accept the pleasure of intoxication and give little guide on difference between being a little drunk and a lot drunk, and doing it three to four times a year versus weekly. We need to have that conversation.’

The survey also found 28 per cent of women across all the countries had been taken advantage of when drunk or high – compared with just 6 per cent of men. This included 10 per cent of women who said this had happened at least once in the past 12 months.

And women said they regretted being drunk an average of 22.5 per cent of occasions versus men at just 16.5 per cent.

Researchers based in London surveyed 5,400 participants from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland between October and December last year.

Katherine Severi, chief executive of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: ‘It is disappointing to see the UK topping the international leaderboard for drunkenness. Such findings show that, even despite declines in overall alcohol consumption made in recent years, there are still a significant number of drinkers at risk of serious health damage.’

Industry-funded body the Alcohol Information Partnership said: ‘This report runs contrary to the vast weight of the data. The evidence shows the way people drink in the UK is changing, with people increasingly choosing fewer, better quality drinks.’