Health policy think tank Mitchell Institute has revealed its latest alcohol report as a health warning for the holiday period, particularly with people in regional areas shown to drink at riskier levels than city residents.

This comes as National Health and Medical Research Council this week revised its alcohol guidelines for healthy men and women to no more than 10 standard drinks per week and no more than four in one day.

Under previous risky standards of more than two standard drinks per day, 17.7 per cent of Ballarat residents after 14-plus drink at dangerous levels.

In the Golden Plains Shire, more than one in five people are drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol while in the Hepburn Shire the rate is almost one in five people.

Australia's national risky drinking rate is on the downward trend at 17.1 per cent of those aged 14-plus.

Those living in Greater Dandenong (6.5 per cent) and Brimbank (8.6) are among the lowest risky drinkers in the nation.

Professor Rosemary Calder, from Mitchell Institute at Victoria University, said people who drank to excess were at much higher risk of alcohol-related illness including heart disease, stroke, liver disease, some cancers, depression, anxiety and dementia.

Professor Calder said there needed to be greater government focus to get effective information and support to reduce alcohol harm in regional communities.

The data showed lower socio-economic populations in big cities and communities with high migrant populations tended to drink less dangerously in what Professor Calder said showed culture and alcohol price were big influencers on drinking patterns.

Australian Health Policy Collaboration, led by Mitchell Institute, is calling for an increase to tax on alcoholic drinks by 10 per cent and a simplifying of the tax for projected decreased in alcohol consumption by 16 per cent.

Alcohol is the most prominent substance for which people seek treatment from Ballarat Community Health's drug services.

BCH alcohol and other drugs clients range from 12 years old to those in their 80s across all socioeconomic backgrounds in what the organisation approaches as a community-wide issue.

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