Scotland and England have topped a ranking for how often people get drunk.
A survey found the mean number of times adults in Scotland got drunk in 2019 was 33.8 and in England 33.7.
At the opposite end of the scale in Europe, Portuguese drinkers only got drunk 9.3 times, and Italians 11.7.
The findings were part of the Global Drug Survey 2020, which included data from 110,000 people from 25 countries.
The global average for the mean number of times getting drunk in the previous year was 20.8. Belgium reported 20.9 times, while Switzerland, the Balkan nations and Austria all had 20.5.
The percentage of respondents who said they hadn’t gotten drunk at all in the previous year was highest in Europe in Portugal and then Spain, 54% and 34% respectively.
The survey defined getting drunk as “having drunk so much that your physical and mental faculties are impaired to the point where your balance/speech was affected, you were unable to focus clearly on things and that your conversation and behaviours were very obviously different to people who know you”.
According to the results of the survey, which was conducted between November 7and December 30 2019 (prior to the coronavirus pandemic), respondents from predominantly English-speaking countries and Scandinavia get drunk more times per year than others.
Women under 25 years old were also the most likely to seek emergency medical treatment following drinking.
Globally, 94% of respondents reported drinking alcohol, 64% used cannabis, and 60% tobacco.
Harder drugs such as MDMA, cocaine and amphetamines were at 37%, 31% and 24% respectively.
