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[Representational Image]Reuters

The Global Drug Survey, dubbed as the League of Shame, released by London on Thursday showed that the United Kingdom is the drunkest country in the world and India follows not far behind in the sixth position.

The study revealed that Britons get drunk 51.1 times a year, which amounts to at least once a week. Indians get drunk 41 times a year, almost once a week. The second place went to the United States (50.3), followed by Canada (47.9) and Australia (47.4) in the third and fourth places, respectively.

The countries which drink the least predominantly belong to South America. However, Adam Winstock, the founder of the survey and a consultant addiction psychiatrist, said that while they drink the less, it doesn't mean that they don't drink excess since the survey calculates the number of times a person drinks but not how much.

"We get told too much is bad, and it is, but current guidelines fail to accept the pleasure of intoxication and give a little guide on the difference between being a little drunk and a lot drunk, and doing it three to four times a year versus weekly," Winstock was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

"We need to have that conversation. In the UK, we don't tend to do moderation, we end up getting drunk as the point of the evening," he added.

For the survey, data was collected from 123,814 people from over 30 countries, reports HT. The average age was 29 years. About 57 per cent were 25 years or younger while 19 per cent were 35 years or older.

The survey also showed that in the global scenario, 20 per cent of the participants reported that they regretted drinking so much. Out of this, 24.2 per cent were women aged 25 years or older while the smallest demographic were males aged 25 years and younger (17 per cent).

In addition to this, those who regretted drinking had a high-risk drinking pattern. They comprised 35 per cent of the candidates while those who regretted drinking and did not possess a high risk drinking pattern were only 19 per cent.