Europe's most moderate drinkers were the Italians, with nine of ten people never had more than two drinks at a single sitting.

A Europe-wide study found that although the British are not the EU's most regular drinkers - only consuming alcohol an average of four times a week - they drink the most at one sitting. 
The findings expose the failure of 24-hour drinking laws, introduced five years ago in the hope of creating a more continental-style café culture. 
The research, by pollsters Eurobarometer, found British drinkers consume more in one session than any other of the EU's 27 nations. 
Only the Maltese and the Finnish could match the quantity of drink consumed at a single sitting, with one in ten drinking the same quantity as the British. 
And only two out of ten Britons said they had consumed no alcohol at all in the past 12 months, compared to double that number in Portugal, Italy and Hungary. 
Meanwhile, Denmark and Sweden were the countries where the highest number of people had imbibed in the past year, with the survey finding less than one in ten of them had abstained completely. 
The study also found the countries that drank the least also drank the most frequently. 
Italians and Portuguese had the greatest tendency to drink little and often, with six out of ten people in both countries saying they drank up to two glasses every day of the week. 
Europe's most moderate drinkers were the Italians, with nine out of ten people saying they never had more than two drinks at a single sitting. 
Across Europe the survey found three-quarters of EU citizens had consumed alcoholic beverages in the past 12 months, while a quarter claimed they had abstained. 
It also found that in all countries, those aged 55 years or more were more likely to drink every day than young people aged 15 to 24. 
But young people were twice as likely to drink five or more drinks at a single session than those over 55. 
The study comes as Home Office figures show crime and disorder caused by binge drinking is costing the taxpayer between eight and 13 billion pounds a year. 
A spokesman for Eurobarometer in Brussels said: "Europe is the region with the highest per capita alcohol consumption in the world, and Britain tops the league for the largest volumes drank in single sessions. 
"The high level of drinking brings with it a high level of harm, in the form of social disorder and injury. 
"In the European Union, harmful and hazardous alcohol consumption is also the third largest risk factor for ill health, responsible for 195,000 deaths each year. "The estimated economic cost is in the region of 100 billion 125 billion pounds across the whole EU." 
The survey was commissioned by the European Commission and was carried out TNS Opinion, who interviewed 18,000 people across Europe over the past three months. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7616405/
Britain-is-the-binge-drinking-capital-of-Europe.html
 

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