THE UK'S FATAL DRINKING PROBLEM

THE parts of the UK with the most lethal drinking problems have been laid bare by a new map revealing a north-south divide for alcohol-specific deaths.

- By RICHARD AULT

Some 9,809 people died from alcohol specific causes in 2024, the latest figures available. These are deaths where health conditions are a direct consequence of drink, such as alcoholic liver disease, alcohol poisoning or mental and behavioural disorders caused by drink.

While that was a 6% drop from the record 10,473 the previous year, and the lowest number of deaths since 2021, it was still 30% higher than in 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The figures show that alcohol-related deaths surged by 19% between 2019 and 2020, after the UK went into lockdown, and have remained high since then.

The latest figures show men are twice as likely to die as a direct consequence of drinking alcohol as women.

Last year, 6,480 males died from alcohol-specific causes, which translates to a mortality rate of 20.2 deaths per 100,000 males, double the rate for females (3,329 deaths, a rate of 9.7 per 100,000 females).

A drink-related death is most likely in Northern Ireland, after the mortality rate overtook Scotland for the first time since 2019.

In Northern Ireland, there were a record 21.4 alcohol-specific deaths per 100,000 of the population, slightly higher than in Scotland (20.9).