Population health · the national record
Drug and alcohol deaths in the UK
Two separate official death series, kept apart throughout. In England and Wales, 5,565 deaths related to drug poisoning were registered in 2024, of which 3,736 were drug misuse, the narrower measure focused on controlled drugs. Across the whole UK, 9,809 deaths were alcohol specific, counting only conditions wholly caused by alcohol. This page separates the drug poisoning trend and local authority league from the four nation alcohol comparison, and flags where each dataset is incomplete or delayed.
How to read this
Deaths are counted by year of registration, not year of occurrence. A drug poisoning death often follows a coroner's inquest, so a death occurring in one year may not be registered for months or years, and the most recent year shown here is not yet complete on an occurrence basis. Local authority rates for drug poisoning are three year rolling averages, published that way to protect against small numbers; the annual counts on this page are a separate, single year figure. Alcohol specific deaths count only the conditions the ONS defines as wholly caused by alcohol, such as alcoholic liver disease, so they undercount the wider toll of alcohol related harm, which also includes deaths from cancers, accidents and other causes where alcohol played a contributing but not sole role.
Computed from ONS Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales, deaths registered in 2024 (published 17 October 2025), and ONS Alcohol specific deaths in the UK, deaths registered in 2024 (published 11 May 2026).
Two series, kept separate
Drug poisoning deaths at a record high in England and Wales
5,565 deaths related to drug poisoning were registered in England and Wales in 2024, the highest number since comparable records began in 1993. Of those, 3,736 deaths, 67.1 per cent, were classed as drug misuse, a narrower measure limited to controlled drugs and certain related disorders. England recorded 5,129 of the poisoning deaths and Wales 417. Because deaths are counted by year of registration and drug poisoning cases often go through a coroner's inquest, the median registration delay in 2024 was 214 days in England and 279 days in Wales, so the true occurrence figure for the most recent year will only become clear later.
The long trend
The drug poisoning rate has more than doubled since 2012
The age standardised drug poisoning death rate in England and Wales fell in the early 2010s before rising sharply. It stood at 46.5 deaths per million people in 2012 and reached 93.9 per million in 2024, a rate 2.0 times higher. The drug misuse subset followed the same shape, at 29 per million in 2012 and 63.1 per million in 2024.
Age standardised rate for all drug poisoning deaths, persons, England and Wales, deaths registered 1993 to 2024. Source: ONS.
Where drug poisoning rates are highest and lowest
A local authority league, three year rolling rates
The ONS publishes local authority drug poisoning rates as three year rolling averages, here 2022 to 2024, because annual counts for a single small area are too small to turn into a reliable rate. These rolling rates cannot be read as an annual figure. For comparison, Blackpool's rolling count over 2022 to 2024 was 128 deaths at a rate of 32.4 per 100,000; its single year annual count for 2024 alone, a different and smaller figure, was 35 deaths. England's three year rolling rate is 8.8 per 100,000 and Wales's is 12.6 per 100,000.
Highest rates
Lowest rates
* Based on between 10 and 19 deaths over the three year window; the ONS marks these rates as low reliability.
Age standardised rate per 100,000 people for all drug poisoning deaths, persons, by local authority, deaths registered 2022 to 2024 (a three year rolling average, not an annual figure). England overall: 8.8 per 100,000. Wales overall: 12.6 per 100,000. 318 local authorities covered, 8 with too few deaths to calculate a rate. Source: ONS.
Who is affected
Drug misuse deaths peak in midlife, and men are affected far more than women
In 2024, men accounted for 3,710 of the 5,565 drug poisoning deaths in England and Wales, a rate of 128.7 per million against 60.6 per million for women. Looking at the drug misuse subset by age, the rate peaks among people in their forties: 146.6 deaths per million for the 40 to 49 age group, more than the rate for any other age band.
Drug misuse death rate by age, 2024
Age specific rate per million people, drug misuse deaths, persons, England and Wales, deaths registered in 2024. Source: ONS.
Men
Women
A separate, four nation series
Alcohol specific deaths across the four nations
9,809 alcohol specific deaths were registered across the UK in 2024, a rate of 14.8 per 100,000 people. This is a genuinely comparable four nation measure. Northern Ireland had the highest rate at 21.4 per 100,000 and England the lowest at 13.8, with Scotland and Wales in between. The four nation totals sum to 9,793, 16 fewer than the UK total of 9,809; the ONS attributes such small residuals to deaths of people whose usual residence could not be assigned to one of the four nations. Men died at more than double the rate of women, 20.2 per 100,000 against 9.7. Alcoholic liver disease alone accounts for 74.3 per cent of all UK alcohol specific deaths, and mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol use for a further 15.4 per cent.
UK total: 9,809 deaths, 14.8 per 100,000. Age standardised rate, persons, deaths registered in 2024. Source: ONS.
UK trend, 2001 to 2024
Age standardised rate for alcohol specific deaths, persons, UK, deaths registered 2001 to 2024. Source: ONS.
By sex, UK, 2024
What causes the deaths, UK, 2024
Questions this raises
For public health and coroners
- 1.
The drug poisoning rate has roughly doubled since 2012 and is still rising. What is driving the increase, and does it differ between the wider poisoning measure and the narrower drug misuse subset?
- 2.
Local authority rates are published as three year rolling averages to protect against small numbers. Does that disclosure control make it harder to spot fast moving local trends?
- 3.
Coroner registration delays mean the newest year of data is incomplete. How much would the most recent figures rise once every inquest concludes?
- 4.
Alcohol specific deaths count only conditions wholly caused by alcohol. How much larger would the toll look if partly alcohol attributable deaths, such as some cancers, were included?
- 5.
Northern Ireland and Scotland have the highest alcohol specific death rates in the UK while England has the lowest. What accounts for the persistent gap between the four nations?
Sources & method
Data provenance
- Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales (ONS) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales: reference tables (ONS) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- Drug misuse deaths by local authority (ONS) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- Alcohol specific deaths in the UK (ONS bulletin) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- Alcohol specific deaths in the UK: dataset (ONS) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- Drug addiction: getting help (NHS) ↗
- Alcohol support (NHS) ↗
Caveats & data notes
- Two different measures are used for drugs. All drug poisoning covers any death coded to accidental, intentional or undetermined poisoning by a drug or medicine. Drug misuse is a narrower subset limited to deaths involving a substance controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, or certain mental and behavioural disorders due to drug use. The dataset file name refers to drug misuse, but the underlying publication and most of its tables cover the wider drug poisoning measure; the two totals cannot be added together, since misuse deaths are a subset of poisoning deaths, not a separate group.
- Deaths are counted by year of registration, not year of occurrence. Drug poisoning deaths often follow a coroner's inquest, and the median registration delay in 2024 was 214 days in England and 279 days in Wales, so a meaningful share of deaths registered each year actually occurred earlier. The most recent year on this page is therefore incomplete on an occurrence basis and will be revised upward in later publications.
- Local authority rates for drug poisoning are three year rolling averages (318 areas covered, 8 suppressed for too few deaths to calculate a rate), a disclosure control method that differs from the single year annual counts shown separately. A rolling rate and an annual count must never be read as the same measure; this page keeps them in separate figures throughout.
- Some local authority rates in the league table are based on between 10 and 19 deaths over the three year window and are marked by the ONS as having low reliability; these are noted where they appear rather than omitted, since the ONS itself publishes them with that caveat rather than suppressing them.
- Alcohol specific deaths count only conditions the ONS defines as wholly caused by alcohol, chiefly alcoholic liver disease. They exclude deaths from conditions alcohol contributes to but does not solely cause, such as some cancers, road traffic collisions and other injuries, so the true toll of alcohol related harm is larger than this figure.
- Scotland's drug related death statistics are compiled separately by National Records of Scotland using a methodology that is not directly comparable to the England and Wales drug poisoning series covered here, including a different treatment of deaths from contaminated heroin. This page does not attempt to combine the two.
- Local authority boundaries follow the latest available postcode boundaries at the time of publication and may not match earlier years exactly where councils have merged or split.
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