Highly educated women drink the most

Women who attend university consume more alcohol than their less-educated counterparts, says a new British study.

The study carried out at the London School of Economics showed that women with degrees are almost twice as likely to drink daily, and they are also more likely to admit to having a drinking problem.

The researchers found a similar link between educational attainment and alcohol consumption among men, but the correlation is less strong, reports The Telegraph.

The findings are based on a study of thousands of 39-year-old women and men, all born in the United Kingdom in the same week in 1970.

"The more educated women are, the more likely they are to drink alcohol on most days and to report having problems due to their drinking patterns.

"The better-educated appear to be the ones who engage the most in problematic patterns of alcohol consumption," the report concluded.

The researchers of the study suggest several possible explanations as to why better-educated women drink more.

Such women tend to have children later, postponing the responsibilities of parenthood. They may have more active social lives or work in male-dominated workplaces with a drinking culture.

Also, as girls, they may have grown up in middle-class families and seen their parents drink regularly.