Welcome to Belfast, the booziest city in UK

Belfast is the booziest city in the UK with the average man spending a staggering £40,000 in a lifetime on drink, according to a health magazine.

The sobering statistics are the latest findings from a new 'Best of Britain' report published by Men's Health magazine.

And it shows that Ulster men drink the rest of the UK under the table by forking out £40,939 on booze - the highest lifetime spend on alcohol.

The poll also revealed 48% of men in Belfast admitted binge drinking at least once a week and drank 21.2 units of alcohol per week.

Leeds came second with 21% of men admitting to binge drinking at least once a week and spending £38,567 in their lifetime on alcohol.

Birmingham men were the most sober with just 15% admitting to drinking 10 or more units in any one session each week.

According to the article: "Belfast is soaking - its men are either brutally honest drinkers or too drunk to calculate their incomes properly."

David Leon, professor of epidemiology at King's College London tells Men's Health: "Drink 12 or more units in one session and your booze filter swells with fat globules, leading to scar tissue and one bad hangover."

The figures were produced after analysing the latest data from the Institute of Alcohol Studies, the ONS's Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Misuse report and rehab site pcpluton.com.

The report also highlights research in the Lancet medical journal which claims Northern Ireland has the fastest growing rate of liver cirrhosis of any region in Europe after Russia.

The survey also hints that the booze could be affecting Belfast men's sex lives with only 3.33% stating they thought about sex more than 10 times per day-compared to 17.07% of men in Glasgow.

The report says: "Least interested in sex and the booziest? Belfast boys prove that alcohol dampens one's sex drive."

Belfast Telegraph