Alcohol-related Deaths

Main points

• In 2015, there were 1,150 alcohol-related deaths, on the basis of the current definition (details available via Alcohol Related Deaths - the Coverage of the Statistics section); a decrease of 2 (0.2 per cent) compared with 2014, and the third lowest annual total since 1997.  The 1,080 such deaths registered in 2012 was the lowest number since 1997, and the 2013 figure of 1,100 was the second lowest.
• These figures may fluctuate from year to year. Chart 1 shows the number for each year, together with the 5-year moving annual average (as an indication of any overall trend) and the likely range of statistical variability around it (which is explained in the Background paper - PDF 21 Kb). It will be seen that almost all the year-to-year fluctuations over the period since 1979 have been within what would be expected to be the likely range of statistical variability.
• The number of alcohol-related deaths was relatively stable, at roughly 600 per year, during the 1980s. It then increased rapidly during the 1990s and early 2000s, to around 1,500 per year in the mid-2000s. The figure of 1,546 in 2006 was the largest so far recorded: since then, the trend has appeared to be generally downward, as the rises in some years have been small (compared to the falls in the other years) and could well be due to year-to-year variability. Having two consecutive increases (in 2013 and 2014) did not necessarily mean a change to the long-term downward trend, because 1,152 alcohol-related deaths registered in 2014 was not far from the figure for that year that one would obtain by extrapolating the downward trend shown by the values of the 5-year moving annual average since the mid-2000s.  Two consecutive but relatively small increases could arise as a result of year-to-year fluctuations, as could the very slight fall in 2015.
• Table 1 shows that the 1,150 alcohol-related deaths in 2015 consisted of 764 male deaths and 386 female deaths. Over the years since 1979, there have been roughly twice as many male deaths as female deaths, with the two figures tending to rise and fall together (although there have been some exceptions, as the ratio has been as low as 1.4:1 and as high as 2.4:1). 
• In 2015, there were 130 alcohol-related deaths of people in the 30-44 age-group, 16 fewer than in 2014 and the lowest figure since 1995 (when there were 121 alcohol-related deaths of 30-44 year olds). The number of deaths of people aged 45-59 was 491, nine more than in 2014 and the third consecutive increase, but still the fourth lowest figure since 1997 (when there were 445 such deaths, the lowest number in that period being 420 in 2012). There was an increase of 17 in deaths of 60-74 year olds, to 412: a second consecutive increase, but still the fourth lowest figure since 2000 (when there were 402 such deaths, the lowest number in that period being 359 in 2013). The 108 deaths of people aged 75 and over was 10 fewer than in 2014, but was still the third highest number ever recorded for that age-group (the 118 in 2014 and the 117 registered in 2003 being the two highest values). There were nine deaths aged under 30, two fewer than in 2014, and the lowest number since 1996 (when there were four; deaths in this age group have fluctuated between 9 and 19 over the last decade). The table shows that the 45-59 age-group has had the largest number of alcohol-related deaths in almost every year since 1979.
• Tables 2 and 3 give figures for each NHS Board area and council. As the figures can fluctuate markedly from year to year, 3-and 5-year averages are shown for NHS Boards and 5-year averages are shown for councils. This should indicate better any overall trend.

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