Are you surprised by where Ireland ranked?

Irish culture is widely associated with social nightlife and alcohol. We have become a stereotype to other nations of people who are constantly drunk. And while it might be a bit of exaggeration, there is some truth behind our relationship with drink. But we can now say that while we have a reputation the statistics say otherwise. The World Health Organisation ranked countries in order of how much alcohol they consumed  and showed the total consumption of the average person in each country in litres per year. Belarus took the top stop by miles when it came to alcohol consumption with the average person there consuming 17.32 litres per year. Lithuania placed second, followed by the Czech Republic, Croatia and Austria which all had an average consumption of around 12 litres. Ireland places eighth on the list, with an average of 11.72 litres of pure alcohol consumed by our nation. Here are the 15 countries that consume the most alcohol:

1. Belarus (17.32l)
2. Lithuania (12.65l)
3. Czech Republic (12.43l)
4. Croatia (12.18l)
5. Austria (12.04l)
6. Portugal (11.92l)
7. France (11.8l)
8. Ireland (11.72l)
9. Estonia (11.61
10. Hungary (11.51
11. Luxembourg (11.4l)
12. Germany (11.2l)
13. Russian Federation (11.05l)
14. Equatorial Guinea (10.99l)
15. Poland (10.92l)

European countries accounted for a huge percent of the world's biggest drinkers while countries including Libya and Somalia ranked the lowest. Remember to always drink responsibly.