But the research in Liverpool, which also allows for 14% of the population being teetotal, says for those adults that drink, the average is 26 units a week, combining men and women.
So do many of Turkey's estimated 15m Alevis, who practise an idiosyncratic form of Islam: they do not pray in mosques, they are not teetotal and their women do not cover their heads.
The Northern Irish are most likely to be teetotal and people living in the east Midlands drink more milk than anyone else in Britain and people in the north east are more likely to play the National Lottery.