Analysing data from 15-95 year-olds in 195 countries between 1990 and 2016, researchers compared people who did not drink at all with those who had one alcoholic drink a day.
They found that out of 100,000 non-drinkers, 914 would develop an alcohol-related health problem such as cancer, or suffer an injury.
For those who has one alcoholic drink a day, an extra four would be affected and for those who had two a day, 63 more developed a condition within a year; five drinks a day showed an increase of 338 people who developed a health problem.
Government recommendations suggest that men and women drink no more than 14 units a week, which is the equivalent to six pints of average strength beer or seven glasses of wine.
The study, named The Global Burden of Disease, showed that British women drink an average of three drinks a day and ranked eighth in the world of highest drinkers.
British men also drank an average of three drinks a day but were ranked at 62 as the average drinking levels were higher generally among men.