AHEAD of St Patrick's Day tomorrow sales of traditional Irish stouts have surged in Oxfordshshire.

Research found the county has seen an 125 per cent increase in people buying the beverages, which include Guinness, Murphy’s and Beamish, in the run up to the celebration of Ireland’s patron saint.

It puts Oxfordshire in the top 10 nationally, narrowly beating neighbours Berkshire - ranked at 11.

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Coming top, meanwhile, was Bristol which has seen an 244 per cent rise in stout sales.

The South of England appears most willing overall to embrace St Patrick’s Day, accounting for seven of the top 10 locations.

The final matches of the Six Nations this weekend will no doubt have also encouraged the country to turn green and embrace stouts.

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However, the Welsh appear to be carrying their rugby enmity off the field, with no regions from the country featuring in the top 20 list ahead of their Six Nations decider with Ireland later today.

The data, which came from Criteo, found across the whole UK stout sales have risen by 78 per cent.

It is based on sales of Guinness, Murphy’s and Beamish stout in the UK, comparing sales on March 14 with the average between February 1 and March 13.

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More than 1.7 million sales of relevant products were analysed.

Top 20 - Increase in sales of Irish stouts ahead of St Patrick's Day

by region

Bristol

244%

West Midlands

188%

Essex

159%

Hampshire

152%

Nottinghamshire

149%

Norfolk

149%

Dorset

144%

Kent

141%

Tyne and Wear

128%

Oxfordshire

125%

Berkshire

118%

South Yorkshire

117%

Strathclyde

90%

East Sussex

89%

Suffolk

87%

Greater Manchester

77%

West Lothian

68%

Lothian

68%

Lancashire

62%

Cheshire

59%