Alcohol-related Deaths Analysis: Statistics and Trends Revealed

Statistical update: APPG on Alcohol Harm Lifestyle and Risk Factors Analysis Branch Office for National Statistics 9th February 2021

Overview 1. Introductions and background 2. Alcohol-specific deaths data for 2019 registrations 3. Provisional quarterly death registrations for 2020 quarters 1 to 3

Background Lifestyles and risk factors analysis branch part of health analysis and life events division in ONS. We cover alcohol-specific deaths, drug-related deaths, homelessness deaths, suicides and smoking prevalence. ONS holds mortality records for all deaths that are registered in England and Wales. NRS and NISRA hold data for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Background Alcohol-specific deaths only include those health conditions where each death is a direct consequence of alcohol misuse (that is, wholly attributable causes such as alcoholic liver disease). Each death has an underlying cause of death coded using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The full list of ICD codes used in the alcohol-specific deaths definition is in Table 2 in Measuring the data .

Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK: registered in 2019 11.3% increase among all persons since 2001 Rates have remained stable in recent years Male rates are twice those of females

Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK: registered in 2019 Northern Ireland has the highest rate in 2019. Scotland tends to have highest rate but only country to show significantly lower rates compared to 2001. Both male and female rates in England and Northern Ireland have increased significantly since 2001.

Quarterly alcohol-specific deaths in England and Wales Based on 2001 to 2019 registrations and best available provisional data for Quarter 1 to 3 (Jan to Sept) in 2020. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had little impact on how long it has taken to register alcohol-specific deaths, the median delay continued to be six days in 2020, similar to previous years. Provisional data for England and Wales show there were 5,460 deaths related to alcohol-specific causes registered in the first three quarters of 2020 (Jan to Sept), a 16.4% increase compared with the same nine-month period in 2019.

Quarterly alcohol-specific deaths in England and Wales Rates show in the first three quarters of 2020, alcohol-specific deaths in England and Wales reached the highest level since the beginning of our data series, with April to September, during and after the first lockdown, seeing significantly higher rates compared to the same period in previous years.

Quarterly alcohol-specific deaths in England and Wales When comparing the same quarter across the years, the rate in Quarter 1 2020 was statistically similar to rates in previous years, however, rates in Quarter 2 and Quarter 3 2020 were statistically significantly higher than in any other year back to 2001. Not the same pattern in Wales

Next steps We will continue to monitor alcohol-specific deaths and work with our stakeholders and other charities and organisations to try to understand the impact the pandemic has had on alcohol-specific deaths.

Links to the data and contact information Annual bulletin (2019 registrations): https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causes ofdeath/bulletins/alcoholrelateddeathsintheunitedkingdom/registeredin2019 Quarterly alcohol-specific deaths in England and Wales: 2001 to 2019 registrations and Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) to Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2020 provisional registrations: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/d eaths/bulletins/quarterlyalcoholspecificdeathsinenglandandwales/2001to2019registr ationsandquarter1jantomartoquarter3julytosept2020provisionalregistrations Contact email: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk