New figures show Ireland is the biggest consumer of vegetables in the European Union.

The data from Eurostat examined daily consumption of vegetables in the EU for 2017.

Ireland came out on top, with 84% of the population saying they ate vegetables at least once a day.

This was in joint first place with Belgium.

Source: Eurostat

While in most EU member states, between 50% and 80% of the population reported that they ate vegetables daily.

There were just five member states where the proportion was below 50%: Hungary (30%), Romania (41%), Latvia (44 %), Lithuania and Bulgaria (both 45%).

In terms of fruit consumption, Italians got the largest daily dose of fruit, at 85%.

They were followed by Portugal (81%), Spain (77%), Ireland (72%) and Luxembourg (72%).

Source: Eurostat

Those at the bottom of the scale were Romania (42%), Hungary (40%), Lithuania (37%), Bulgaria (37%) and Latvia (35%).

The study found that in 2017, around one in four people ate fruit at least twice a day.

A further 37% of the EU population ate fruit once a day, and the remaining 36% ate fruit either less frequently or not at all during a typical week.

Compared with fruit consumption, a slightly smaller proportion (23%) of the EU population ate vegetables at least twice a day, and a slightly higher proportion (40%) ate vegetables once a day.

Source: Eurostat

Eurostat also noted that the United Kingdom have "low reliability" and were therefore excluded from the study.