Beer

In this file photo, a bartender serves two mugs of beer at a tavern in Montpelier, Vt. Binge drinking rates among Staten Islanders are on the rise, according to a new study. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

(Toby Talbot)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The rate of binge drinking among Staten Islanders has grown twice as fast as the national average over the past decade, according to a new study that analyzed drinking habits across the United States.

The percentage of Islanders who binge drink, defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having four drinks or more for women and five drinks or more for men on a single occasion in the past month, has grown by 20 percent since 2005, researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation found.

The study, published this week in the American Journal of Public Health, found that the percentage of Americans over 21 who are binge drinkers and heavy drinkers -- defined by the CDC as exceeding an average of one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men over the past month -- is on the rise, buoyed largely by greater drinking rates among women.

"We are seeing some very alarming trends in alcohol overconsumption, especially among women," Dr. Ali Mokdad, the study's lead author, said in a statement. "We also can't ignore the fact that in many US counties a quarter of the people, or more, are binge drinkers."

While excessive drinking has increased for both genders, the percentage of people who drink alcohol in general -- about 56 percent of the U.S. population -- hasn't budged in the past decade, the study found.

Since 2005, the percentage of Staten Island men and women who drink heavily and binge drink has increased markedly.

Among Staten Island women, heavy drinking is up 32.4 percent and binge drinking is up 27.1 percent since 2005. Heavy drinking and binge drinking among borough men is up 26.8 percent and 16.4 percent, respectively, over the same period.

Comparing across the five boroughs, the percentage of drinkers (62.1%), heavy drinkers (6.9%) and binge drinkers (19.8%) on Staten Island is topped only by Manhattan. The rate of growth of heavy drinkers on Staten Island is second only to Brooklyn over the past decade, while the rate of growth of binge drinkers on Staten Island exceeds all other boroughs.

Only four New York counties out of 62 had a greater increase in the percentage of binge drinking than did Richmond County between 2002 and 2012, the study found.