Europeans Are The World's Biggest Drinkers

Europeans have a lot to brag about in the wine, spirits, and beer departments. It may not come as too much of a surprise then, that a recent report by the World Health Organization and the European Commission found Europeans to be the world's heaviest consumers of alcohol — nearly double that of the world average.

These are not findings deserving of a college coed-like cheers. Per the report, the people in Europe drink "the equivalent of 12.5 liters of pure alcohol a year or almost three glass of wine a day." Furthermore, the study indicated that the biggest drinkers are in central-eastern and eastern Europe — with adults consuming 14.5 liters of alcohol per year — but that the Nordic and central-eastern regions were found to have the highest levels of "hazardous drinking."

As one might expect with such results, the report also found that an alarming number of people in the European Union die from alcohol-related incidents. Apparently, "almost 12 percent of all deaths in 2004 among people aged 15 to 64 were due to alcohol."

Europe may be responsible for producing some of the best drinks in the world, but it seems in this case that a call for moderation is in order.