For those who don't read the postings on the ADHS website's Daily  
Record, here is an item that I recently posted.

British women world's worst binge drinkers

An article is the (London) Independent, 22 October 2006, is  
headlined, "Drunk & disorderly: Women in UK are worst binge drinkers  
in world." A key sentence: "One in three 17- to 30-year-olds is now  
classed as a heavy drinker, bingeing on four or more drinks in one  
session at least once a fortnight." This is 11 times worse than the  
situation in Germany and Italy. Only in Ireland is the situation  
worse than in the United Kingdom. Nearly two thirds of young Irish  
women are heavy drinkers. Although men in the UK are heavy drinkers,  
they aren't the heaviest drinkers in the world. In Britain 26% of men  
are heavy drinkers, a statistic not as high as that for men in  
Belgium, Colombia, Ireland, and Poland. What is striking about the  
British Isles is that drinking has increased in England, Scotland,  
and Ireland, while it has declined in Western Europe with the  
exception of Denmark. The article is not clear about the age of the  
men being compared. For more, see here.