A new report from a leading British alcohol watchdog says the majority of people who drink on a regular basis in Germany do so to avoid the risks of binge drinking.
According to the Alcohol and Drug Association of Germany, just 9 percent of people surveyed in the country report they ever had a drink after drinking more than 10 drinks in a day.
The study was conducted in October of 2016, when the association asked people in Germany to rate their drinking habits on a scale of one to 10, where one is considered binge drinking and ten is considered non-binge drinking.
The results were shocking:Just one in four respondents who answered a yes to this question reported having had a regular drink at least once in their lives.
That’s almost double the rate of the country’s population as a whole.
The findings come as the government of the German state of Bavaria is considering legalising the sale of small amounts of beer to anyone over the age of 18.
In September, a study by the International Centre for Research on Alcohol Dependence (ICDR) showed that Germany’s alcohol consumption fell in the last five years compared to a period in 2010-2015, after a boom in the export of beer in recent years.
It found that alcohol consumption has fallen by 7.6 percent between 2009 and 2016 in Germany.
