Beer Europe
Reuters

A World Health Organisation (WHO) report has been released which details the levels of alcohol consumption across the world, revealing an interesting order of countries in the top-ten heaviest drinkers.

All of the countries topping the list are in Europe, according to the "Global status report on alcohol and health 2014."

Belarus, in eastern Europe, proved to be the world's biggest lovers of alcohol, downing 17.5 litres of beverages on average per year.

Surprisingly, the United Kingdom and Ireland do not make the top ten. The report revealed that Britons over 15 years old drink 11.6 litres on average every year, making it joint 17th with Slovenia.

Australia and Canada also failed to meet the top 10 but maintain high levels of drinking at 12.2 and 10.2 litres a year respectively.

The global average figure is 6.2 litres of pure alcohol per person every year, taking into account that the majority of the world's population (61.7%) does not drink at all.

"More needs to be done to protect populations from the negative health consequences of alcohol consumption," said Dr Oleg Chestnov, WHO assistant director-general for non-communicable diseases and mental health.

"The report clearly shows that there is no room for complacency when it comes to reducing the harmful use of alcohol."

Dr Shekhar Saxena, director for mental health and substance abuse at WHO, said: "We found that worldwide about 16 per cent of drinkers engage in heavy episodic drinking - often referred to as 'binge-drinking' - which is the most harmful to health.

"Lower-income groups are more affected by the social and health consequences of alcohol. They often lack quality health care and are less protected by functional family or community networks."

Scroll below to see which countries made the top 10 heaviest-drinkers.

Top 10:

10th: Portugal - 12.9 litres

Portugal Beer
Wine wood barrels are lined up to be transported at Palmela's cellars on the outskirts of Lisbon. Reuters

Joint 9th:

Czech Republic - 13 litres

Czech
A bartender serves alcohol at a bar in Prague. Reuters

Slovakia - 13 litres

Slovakia
Vladimir Banak of Slovakia presents his Sweet Road cocktail with which he won the final of the classic category in the 35th World Cocktail competition. Reuters

8th: Hungary - 13.3 litres

Hungary
Antal Kosa, 67, drinks a can of beer during a May Day celebration at the city park in Budapest. Reuters

7th: Andorra - 13.8 litres

7. Andorra -- 15.48 litres
This tiny landlocked mountain paradise between France and Spain has a huge problem with alcoholism. Andorra is closely associated with the spirit of absinthe. siakhenn.tripod.com

6th: Ukraine - 13.9 litres

Ukraine
A man holds a bottle of beer while smoking with air temperature around minus 15 degrees Celsius in Kiev. Reuters

5th: Romania - 14.4 litres

Romania
People drink beer inside a frozen truck with a temperature of -8 degrees Celsius during an advertising campaign in Bucharest. Reuters

4th: Russia - 15.1 litres

Russia
A customer takes a bottle of vodka from a shelf at a Russian supermarket. Reuters

3rd: Lithuania - 15.4 litres

Lithuania
Lithuanian FA President Liutauras Varanavicius (L) and former Heart of Midlothian football club owner Vladimir Romanov share a drink at a reception in Kaunas, Lithuania. Reuters

2nd: Moldova - 16.8 litres

Moldova
Bottles of vintage wine are seen in the world's largest Cricova wine cellar, located outside Moldova's capital Chisinau. Reuters

1st: Belarus - 17.5 litres

Belarus
Belarussian hunters have vodka with fried wild boar liver after hunting in a forest near the village of Barovka, east of Minsk. Reuters