PORTUGAL OCCUPIES third place in the European ranking of countries with the highest number of teetotallers, according to a recent European Commission study.
More than a third of the close to 1,000 Portuguese citizens surveyed revealed that they did not drink any type of alcoholic beverage last year. Only Italy and Hungary, with 40 per cent and 38 per cent respectively, were ahead of Portugal.
Aside from this result, half of those Portuguese who said they do drink alcohol are drinking it on a daily basis.
Figures
Eight out of every nine Portuguese, who are not teetotal, said they drunk alcohol last month, corresponding to one of the highest figures in the EU, where the average was 13 per cent.
However, even though this figure is high, the Portuguese are considered to be moderate drinkers because more than half (55 per cent) revealed that they had not drunk more than five drinks on one occasion last year.
At the other extreme is Ireland, where only one in 10 people surveyed responded negatively to the same question.
The banning of publicity for alcoholic drinks targeting young people was widely accepted by the Portuguese.
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