According to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 3 million people lost their lives as a result of harmful alcohol use in 2016.
The WHO says 1 in 20 deaths can be attributed to harmful alcohol use, which is more than three quarters of deaths among men.
The harmful use of alcohol causes more than 5% of the global disease burden according to WHO’s Global status report on alcohol and health 2018.
The report also details the actions being taken by various countries to tackle harmful alcohol use.
From the alcohol induced deaths, 28 per cent were caused by injuries – including traffic crashes, self-harm and violence induced injuries.
Digestive disorders caused 21% of alcohol harm deaths and 19% were due to cardiovascular diseases.
One of the key findings of the study is that countries need to do more to tackle alcohol fuelled harm and fatalities.