It is estimated that alcohol contributed to around 2.6 million deaths worldwide in 2019. The major causes of alcohol-related death include alcohol poisoning, liver damage, heart failure, cancer, and car accidents. Alcohol abuse worldwide Despite the widespread use of alcohol around the world, a global survey from 2024 of people from 31 different countries found that around 16 percent of respondents stated alcohol abuse was the biggest health problem facing people in their country. The countries with the highest per capita consumption of alcohol include Romania, Georgia, and Latvia. Alcohol consumption in the United States It is estimated that over half of adults in the United States aged 21 to 49 currently use alcohol. Binge drinking (four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men on a single occasion) is most common among those aged 21 to 29 years, but still around 25 percent of those aged 40 to 44 report binge drinking. The states with the highest share of the population who binge drink are North Dakota, Iowa, and South Dakota. The death rate due to alcohol in the United States was around 13.5 per 100,000 population in 2022, an increase from a rate of 10.4 per 100,000 recorded in 2019.

Annual data on age-standardised and age-specific alcohol-specific death rates in the UK, its constituent countries and regions of England.

In 2019, nearly 14.6 deaths per 100 thousand individuals in Russia were caused by alcohol use disorders. The indicator gradually decreased between 2003 and 2017, but saw an increase in recent years.

Annual data on number of alcohol-specific deaths by sex, age group and individual cause of death, UK constituent countries.

From 1999 to 2022, the rate of death from drug overdose in the United States increased from *********** deaths per 100,000 population. This statistic depicts the rate of alcohol, drug, and suicide deaths in the U.S. from 1999 to 2022.

The graph displays the number of alcohol-related deaths in the United States from 1980 to 2021. The x-axis represents the years, while the y-axis shows the annual count of deaths attributed to alcohol use disorders. Over this 41-year period, deaths range from a low of 5,930 in 1982 to a high of 17,468 in 2019. The data reveals a general upward trend, with gradual increases from the 1980s through the early 2000s, followed by a sharper rise in the 2010s, reaching peak levels in recent years. The graph emphasizes the consistent growth in alcohol-related deaths over the decades.

Deaths from alcohol-related conditions, all ages, directly age-standardised rate per 100,000 population (standardised to the European standard population).

Rationale Alcohol consumption is a contributing factor to hospital admissions and deaths from a diverse range of conditions. Alcohol misuse is estimated to cost the NHS about £3.5 billion per year and society as a whole £21 billion annually.

The Government has said that everyone has a role to play in reducing the harmful use of alcohol - this indicator is one of the key contributions by the Government (and the Department of Health and Social Care) to promote measurable, evidence-based prevention activities at a local level, and supports the national ambitions to reduce harm set out in the Government's Alcohol Strategy. This ambition is part of the monitoring arrangements for the Responsibility Deal Alcohol Network. Alcohol-related deaths can be reduced through local interventions to reduce alcohol misuse and harm.

The proportion of disease attributable to alcohol (alcohol attributable fraction) is calculated using a relative risk (a fraction between 0 and 1) specific to each disease, age group, and sex combined with the prevalence of alcohol consumption in the population. All mortality records are extracted that contain an attributable disease and the age and sex-specific fraction applied. The results are summed into quinary age bands for the numerator and a directly standardised rate calculated using the European Standard Population. This revised indicator uses updated alcohol attributable fractions, based on new relative risks from ‘Alcohol-attributable fractions for England: an update’ (1) published by PHE in 2020. A detailed comparison between the 2013 and 2020 alcohol attributable fractions is available in Appendix 3 of the PHE report (2). A consultation was also undertaken with stakeholders where the impact of the new methodology on the LAPE indicators was quantified and explored (3).

The calculation that underlies all alcohol-related indicators has been updated to take account of the latest academic evidence and more recent alcohol-consumption figures. The result has been that the newly published mortality and admission rates are lower than those previously published. This is due to a change in methodology, mainly because alcohol consumption across the population has reduced since 2010. Therefore, the number of deaths and hospital admissions that we attribute to alcohol has reduced because in general people are drinking less today than they were when the original calculation was made.

Figures published previously did not misrepresent the burden of alcohol based on the previous evidence – the methodology used in this update is as close as sources and data allow to the original method. Though the number of deaths and admissions attributed to alcohol each year has reduced, the direction of trend and the key inequalities due to alcohol harm remain the same. Alcohol remains a significant burden on the health of the population and the harm alcohol causes to individuals remains unchanged.

References:

PHE (2020) Alcohol-attributable fractions for England: an update PHE (2020) Alcohol-attributable fractions for England: an update: Appendix 3 PHE (2021) Proposed changes for calculating alcohol-related mortality

Definition of numerator Deaths from alcohol-related conditions based on underlying cause of death, registered in the calendar year for all ages. Each alcohol-related death is assigned an alcohol attributable fraction based on underlying cause of death (and all cause of deaths fields for the conditions: ethanol poisoning, methanol poisoning, toxic effect of alcohol). Alcohol-attributable fractions were not available for children.

Mortality data includes all deaths registered in the calendar year where the local authority of usual residence of the deceased is one of the English geographies and an alcohol attributable diagnosis is given as the underlying cause of death. Counts of deaths for years up to and including 2019 have been adjusted where needed to take account of the MUSE ICD-10 coding change introduced in 2020. Detailed guidance on the MUSE implementation is available at: MUSE implementation guidance.

Counts of deaths for years up to and including 2013 have been double adjusted by applying comparability ratios from both the IRIS coding change and the MUSE coding change where needed to take account of both the MUSE ICD-10 coding change and the IRIS ICD-10 coding change introduced in 2014. The detailed guidance on the IRIS implementation is available at: IRIS implementation guidance.

Counts of deaths for years up to and including 2010 have been triple adjusted by applying comparability ratios from the 2011 coding change, the IRIS coding change, and the MUSE coding change where needed to take account of the MUSE ICD-10 coding change, the IRIS ICD-10 coding change, and the ICD-10 coding change introduced in 2011. The detailed guidance on the 2011 implementation is available at: 2011 implementation guidance.

Definition of denominator ONS mid-year population estimates aggregated into quinary age bands.

Caveats There is the potential for the underlying cause of death to be incorrectly attributed on the death certificate and the cause of death misclassified. Alcohol-attributable fractions were not available for children. Conditions where low levels of alcohol consumption are protective (have a negative alcohol-attributable fraction) are not included in the calculation of the indicator.

The confidence intervals do not take into account the uncertainty involved in the calculation of the AAFs – that is, the proportion of deaths that are caused by alcohol and the alcohol consumption prevalence that are included in the AAF formula are only an estimate and so include uncertainty. The confidence intervals published here are based only on the observed number of deaths and do not account for this uncertainty in the calculation of attributable fraction - as such the intervals may be too narrow.

Annual data on number of deaths, age-standardised death rates and median registration delays for local authorities in England and Wales.

This dataset presents information on alcohol-attributable mortality rates for Alberta, for selected causes of death, per 100,000 population, for the years 2002 to 2012.

Alcohol Induced Deaths reports the number and rate of alcohol-induced deaths.

In 2022, the rate of suicide deaths in the United States was highest among American Indians and Alaska Natives with 27.1 deaths per 100,000 population. This statistic depicts the rate of alcohol, drug, and suicide deaths in the U.S. in 2022, by race/ethnicity.

Age-standardised alcohol-related deaths rates by sex and age group, England and Wales and regions of England, registered 1994–2013

This dataset is deprecated and will be removed by the end of the calendar year 2024. Updated on 8/18/2024

Drug and alcohol-related Intoxication death data is prepared using drug and alcohol intoxication data housed in a registry developed and maintained by the Vital Statistics Administration (VSA) of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). The methodology for reporting on drug-related intoxication deaths in Maryland was developed by VSA with assistance from the DHMH Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) and the Maryland Poison Control Center. Assistance was also provided by authors of a 2008 Baltimore City Health Department report on intoxication deaths. Data in this table is by incident location, where the death occurred, rather than by county of residence.

Potential working years of life lost (PWYLL) due to alcohol-related conditions, ages 16-64, directly age-standardised per 100,000 population.

Rationale Alcohol consumption is a contributing factor to hospital admissions and deaths from a diverse range of conditions. The Government has said that everyone has a role to play in reducing the harmful use of alcohol - this indicator is one of the key contributions by the Government (and the Department of Health and Social Care) to promote measurable, evidence-based prevention activities at a local level, and supports the national ambitions to reduce harm set out in the Government's Alcohol Strategy. This ambition is part of the monitoring arrangements for the Responsibility Deal Alcohol Network. Alcohol-related deaths can be reduced through local interventions to reduce alcohol misuse and harm.

Years of life lost is a measure of premature mortality. The purpose of this measure is to estimate the length of time a person would have lived had they not died prematurely. As the calculation includes the age at which death occurs, it is an attempt to quantify the burden on society from the specified cause of mortality. Alcohol-related deaths often occur at relatively young ages. One of the ways to consider the full impact of alcohol on both the individual and wider society is to look at how many working years are lost each year due to premature death as a result of alcohol.

To enable comparisons between areas and over time, PWYLL rates are age-standardised to represent the PWYLL if each area had the same population structure as the 2013 European Standard Population (ESP). PWYLL rates are presented as years of life lost per 100,000 population.

Definition of numerator The number of years between a death due to alcohol-related conditions in those aged 16 to 64 years and the age of 65 years. Deaths from alcohol-related conditions are extracted and assigned an alcohol attributable fraction based on underlying cause of death (and all cause of deaths fields for the conditions: ethanol poisoning, methanol poisoning, toxic effect of alcohol). Mortality data includes all deaths registered in the calendar year where the local authority of usual residence of the deceased is one of the English geographies and an alcohol attributable diagnosis is given as the underlying cause of death.

After application of the alcohol-attributable fractions, the number of deaths at each age between 16 and 64 is summed, multiplied by the years remaining to 65, and then aggregated into quinary age bands.

References:

PHE (2020) Alcohol-attributable fractions for England: an update https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-attributable-fractions-for-england-an-update

Definition of denominator ONS Mid-Year Population Estimates aggregated into quinary age bands.

Caveats There is the potential for the underlying cause of death to be incorrectly attributed on the death certificate and the cause of death misclassified. Alcohol-attributable fractions were not available for children. Conditions where low levels of alcohol consumption are protective (have a negative alcohol-attributable fraction) are not included in the calculation of the indicator.

Where the observed total number of deaths is less than 10, the rates have been suppressed as there are too few deaths to calculate PWYLL directly standardised rates reliably. The cut off has been reduced from 25, following research commissioned by PHE and in preparation for publication which shows DSRs and their confidence intervals are robust whenever the count is at least 10.

The confidence intervals do not take into account the uncertainty involved in the calculation of the AAFs – that is, the proportion of deaths that are caused by alcohol and the alcohol consumption prevalence that are included in the AAF formula are only an estimate and so include uncertainty. The confidence intervals published here are based only on the observed number of deaths and do not account for this uncertainty in the calculation of attributable fraction - as such the intervals may be too narrow.

This statistic shows the total number of alcohol-specific death rates in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2023, by age and gender. Male death figures tended to be significantly higher than that of their female counterparts. In 2023,1,158 males aged between 55 and 59 years died of alcohol-specific conditions, while 561 women in the same age died as a result of alcohol use.

Alcohol abuse is widely blamed for the very high rate of male mortality in Russia. I estimate a structural model of the demand for alcohol that incorporates two features of alcohol consumption, peer effects and habits. I use a kink in the policy regime of the excise tax on alcohol and regional variation in alcohol regulations to estimate a price elasticity of demand for alcohol. I find that peer influence and habits are critical determinants of the response of alcohol demand to price changes. The estimates imply that increases in alcohol prices would yield significant reductions in mortality.

In the period from 2013 to 2023, the number of alcohol-related deaths showed a fluctuating trend in Finland. During this period, the number of deaths peaked at 1,926 in 2013. In 2023, 1,727 alcohol-related deaths were reported in Finland, increasing by 63 from the previous year.

This statistical report presents a range of information on alcohol use and misuse by adults and children drawn together from a variety of sources for England unless otherwise stated. More information can be found in the source publications which contain a wider range of data and analyses. Newly published data includes: Alcohol-related hospital admissions published by PHE in their Local Alcohol Profiles for England (LAPE) which uses data from NHS Digital’s Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). New analyses of data on affordability of alcohol using already published ONS data. The latest information from already published sources includes: Alcohol-specific deaths published by ONS. Information on the volume and cost of alcohol related prescriptions from NHS Digital. Adult drinking behaviours from the Health Survey for England (HSE). Child drinking behaviours from the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Survey (SDD). Road casualties involving illegal alcohol levels published by Department for Transport. Expenditure on alcohol from the Family Food report from the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCFS).

Over the course of 2021, about ***** alcohol-related deaths were recorded in Italy. According to the data, that year, ***** men died due to alcohol-related diseases. This was around four times the figure of women who died after developing alcohol-related diseases. Alcohol-related deaths In 2021, the most common alcohol-related death in Italy was caused by alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD). This illness can present itself in different stages after either chronic alcohol use or binge-drinking, each with a different severity of symptoms and fatality.
Alcohol abuse in Italy In 2022, around ** percent of the population consumed amounts of alcohol considered to be excessive in Italy. However, male Italian consumers were more prone to alcohol abuse in the form of binge-drinking than women. In 2021, more men died of alcohol-related causes than women.

This statistic shows the total number of alcohol-specific deaths in the United Kingdom (UK) from 1994 to 2023, by gender. The number of alcohol-specific deaths among males peaked in 2023 at nearly seven thousand, roughly double the number of female deaths, which also peaked in the same year at 3,490 deaths.