TORONTO - Canadians are fortunate indeed to have water, water everywhere, as a study by Statistics Canada finds that it's the beverage consumed by the highest percentage of people, and in the greatest quantities.

Beverage consumption was among the questions asked in 2004 by the Canadian Community Health Survey on nutrition and an article that pulled all the data together was released Wednesday. Respondents had been asked to list all their food and drink consumed in a 24-hour period.

Children aged four and up and adults under the age of 30 get about 20 per cent of their daily intake of calories from beverages, according to the findings.

Drinks comprise 30 per cent of the calorie intake for youngsters aged one to three. But, as the population ages, fewer calories are derived from beverages. Those aged 71 and older get only about 12 per cent of their calories from drinks, the study says.

Milk makes up almost half of the beverages consumed by children aged one to three, with about 88 per cent of children in this age group drinking milk on any given day.

But, as kids get older and well into the teens, they reduce their intake of milk and fruit juice and increase their intake of soft drinks and fruit-flavoured drinks containing less than 100 per cent juice.

"They usually replace milk and fruit juice by soft drinks and fruit drinks, so they're lacking the nutrients that are available in milk and in fruit juice, like vitamin C, vitamin D and calcium," Statistics Canada senior analyst Didier Garriguet said from Ottawa.

"So that's the biggest concern."

On any given day, 53 per cent of boys and 35 per cent of girls aged 14 to 18 had regular soft drinks, the findings indicate.

In a 24-hour period before the interviews were conducted, 77 per cent of men and 84 per cent of women aged 19 to 30 drank water, consuming averages of 1.36 litres and almost 1.2 litres respectively.

After water, milk was the No. 2 beverage, consumed by 49 per cent of men and 54 per cent of women. Regular soft drinks ranked third for men, while coffee ranked third for women.

The 50-plus crowd makes coffee its most common beverage choice after water, with about 75 per cent of men and women reaching for a cup of java - or several cups - on any given day.

More than 20 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women aged 31 to 70 were getting more than the recommended maximum of 400 milligrams of caffeine each day.

"Caffeine can be an issue," Garriguet said.

In terms of alcohol, at ages 19 to 70, about 20 per cent of men and eight per cent of women reported usually having more than two drinks per day.

"The biggest finding was that beer is quite popular for males. A quarter of males aged 19 to 70 did consume beer the day before the interview. And when they did, especially for younger adults, they did consume it in large quantities," Garriguet said.

"For the quarter of the population that did consume beer, we're looking at more than one litre of beer - so more than three bottles, if you want, as an average."