Sri Lankans lead South Asia in alcohol consumption closely followed by India, a new set of data shows.

Sri Lanka is ranked at 115th in the world with an annual consumption of 3.03 litres per capita. India was in 117th place.

Belarusians are the heaviest drinkers in the world, while North Africans barely touch a drop.

This is according to compiled data from international organisations, which found that European countries are particularly heavy drinkers compared to world averages.

Lithuania placed second, followed by the Czech Republic, Croatia and Austria. In fact the top 10 countries were all European.

Data from The Daily Viz, compiled by Matt Stiles using the World Health Organisation and World Bank datasets, shows the total consumption of the average person in each country in annual litres.

The UK ranked 18th for total alcohol consumed, clocking in 3.65 litres of beer, 2.17 litres of spirits and 3.95 litres of wine.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan, Mauritania, Kuwait, Libya, Somalia and Bangladesh placed at the bottom of the rankings.

(With inputs from The Independent)