This Is The Unhealthiest Country In The World

If you've ever been to Prague and sampled the national cuisine – think fried cheese (Smažený Sýr), hearty dumplings (knedliky) and the famously dirt-cheap beer – you probably had a whale of a time. Your body, however, might not have appreciated it so much.

With its love of stodge, meat and alcohol, it might not shock you to learn that the Czech Republic has just been named the unhealthiest country in the world. The new ranking, compiled by clinic comparison website Clinic Compare, used data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on yearly alcohol and tobacco consumption and obesity levels in 179 countries.

The Czechs love their booze and are the 5th biggest drinkers in the world, consuming 13.7 litres of alcohol each per year – that’s 550 shots, or 1.5 shots a day. The country also had the 11th highest tobacco consumption. Central and eastern Europe is pretty unhealthy in general, with the regions dominating the top 10. Russia and Slovenia came second and third, followed by Belarus, Slovakia and Hungary. Poland and Lithuania also scraped into the top 10.

The rankings placed the UK as the world's 19th unhealthiest country, with Britons being the 9th heaviest drinkers in the world (that's 9th of 179 countries, remember, which is more than a little concerning).

The US was the only non-European country to make the top 10, largely due to its high obesity rate. While alcohol and tobacco consumption is relatively low in the country, more than a third (35%) of adults are considered to be dangerously overweight. However, the world's fattest region is Oceania, with 41% of Samoans having a BMI over 30. Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu and Kiribati were also among the top 10 most obese countries.

1. Czech Republic
2. Russia
3. Slovenia
4. Belarus
5. Slovakia
6. Hungary
7. Croatia
8. Poland
9. Luxembourg
10. Lithuania and the United States (joint)