England is no longer a nation of tipplers, but a land in the grip of a dangerous alcohol addiction, public health experts warned last night after the release of research showing 18.2% of adults binge drink more than double the daily recommended limit at least once a week.

In the north-east and north-west nearly a quarter of all adults consume double the limit in one or more drinking bouts each week. This is equivalent to four pints of beer or eight spirit measures in one session for men - three pints of beer, three glasses of wine or six spirit measures for women. Even in the most abstemious regions across eastern and southern England 16% of adults drink this amount or more, at least once a week.

The alcohol map was drawn up by the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University and the North West Public Health Observatory.

It showed Newcastle, Liverpool and Durham as the capitals of binge drinking with more than 27% of adults admitting a spree at least once a week, compared with less than 10% in east Dorset.

The north-east and north-west had the most hospital admissions, with 1,100 men and 610 women admitted per 100,000 population in 2004-05. This compared with less than 700 men and 400 women per 100,000 in the south-east.

Liverpool, Manchester and Middlesbrough had around 70% more admissions than the national average. Wokingham and West Berkshire had nearly 50% less.

Professor Mark Bellis, director of the Centre for Public Health, said: "These profiles illustrate the growing costs of cheap alcohol, a night-time economy almost exclusively packed with bars and clubs, and a failure to deliver a credible drinking message to both youths and adults."

Professor John Ashton, the north-west regional director of public health, blamed the government for failing to act against the drinks industry.

"Alcohol is racing ahead as one of the biggest threats to public health, not least in some of the most disadvantaged parts of the country. Fears of being accused of being part of the nanny state have intimidated governments from tackling head-on the manufacturers of cheap alcohol in the same way that they would if this was any other kind of drug."

The average loss of life due to drinking across England was 10 months for men and five for women. But in Blackpool, men could expect to die 23 months earlier and women 13 months. In Manchester, Salford, and Barrow-in-Furness, men lost 16.5 months due to alcohol, compared with two to four months in the Isles of Scilly or east Dorset.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "We are working hard to raise awareness and ensure that treatment is available to those who need it. The first-ever national needs assessment concerning alcohol problems has just been completed and we are getting more people into treatment.

"We are working with the drinks industry, police and health professionals to increase awareness of the dangers of excessive drinking and make sensible drinking messages easier to understand."

But David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "This alarming research shows why it was wrong of the government to unleash 24-hour drinking on all our towns and cities without a proper assessment of the consequences."

Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "The government still seems to be tiptoeing around the problem."