Figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show over three million people died as a result of harmful use of alcohol in 2016.

This represents one in 20 deaths globally - while more than three-quarters of these deaths were among men.

Overall, harmful alcohol use causes more than 5% of the global disease burden.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, says: "Far too many people, their families and communities suffer the consequences of the harmful use of alcohol through violence, injuries, mental health problems and diseases like cancer and stroke.

"It's time to step up action to prevent this serious threat to the development of healthy societies."

Of all deaths attributable to alcohol, 28% were due to injuries - such as those from traffic crashes, self-harm and interpersonal violence - 21% due to digestive disorders, 19% from cardiovascular diseases, and the remainder were due to infectious diseases, cancers, mental disorders and other health conditions.

The WHO says despite some positive global trends in the prevalence of heavy drinking and the number of alcohol-related deaths since 2010, the overall burden of disease and injuries is "unacceptably high" - particularly in Europe and the Americas.

Globally, an estimated 237 million men and 46 million women suffer from alcohol-use disorders.

The highest prevalence of this is among men and women in the European region (14.8% and 3.5%) and the Americas (11.5% and 5.1%).

Alcohol-use disorders are more common in high-income countries.

Global consumption to increase

An estimated 2.3 billion people are current drinkers.

Alcohol is consumed by more than half of the population in three WHO regions - the Americas, Europe and the Western Pacific.

Europe has the highest per capita consumption in the world, even though its per capita consumption has decreased by more than 10% since 2010.

Current trends and projections point to an expected increase in global alcohol per capita consumption in the next 10 years - particularly in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions and the Americas.

The average daily consumption of people who drink is 33 grams of pure alcohol a day, roughly equivalent to two glasses (each of 150 ml) of wine, a large (750 ml) bottle of beer or two shots (each of 40 ml) of spirits.

School-age drinking

Worldwide, more than a quarter (27%) of all 15 to 19-year-olds are current drinkers.

Rates of current drinking are highest among 15 to 19-year-olds in Europe (44%), followed by the Americas (38%) and the Western Pacific (38%).

School surveys indicate that, in many countries, alcohol use starts before the age of 15 - with very small differences between boys and girls.

Worldwide, 45% of total recorded alcohol is consumed in the form of spirits.

Beer is the second alcoholic beverage in terms of pure alcohol consumed (34%) followed by wine (12%).

Worldwide there have been only minor changes in preferences of alcoholic beverages since 2010.

The largest changes took place in Europe, where consumption of spirits decreased by 3% whereas that of wine and beer increased.

In contrast, more than half (57%, or 3.1 billion people) of the global population aged 15 years and over had abstained from drinking alcohol in the previous 12 months.