It is estimated that alcohol contributes to around three million deaths worldwide per year. That is about five percent of all deaths each year. 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 2021 of people from 30 different countries, found that around 11 percent of respondents stated alcohol abuse was the biggest health problem facing people in their country. It is currently estimated that around 1.38 percent of the global population has alcohol use disorder, however binge drinking and excessive alcohol use, both of which carry health risks, are much more common. The countries with the highest per capita consumption of alcohol include Czechia, Latvia, and the Republic of Moldova.

Alcohol consumption in the United States It is estimated that around 60 percent of adults in the United States aged 21 to 49 years 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 25 years, but still around 29 percent of those aged 40 to 44 report binge drinking. The states with the highest share of the population who binge drink are Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Montana. The death rate due to alcohol in the United States was around 13 per 100,000 population in 2020, an increase from a rate of 10.4 per 100,000 recorded in 2019.

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.

This statistic shows the annual number of deaths attributable to alcohol consumption in the United States between 2006 and 2010. In the given period, the excessive use of alcohol was linked to an annual average of nearly 88 thousand deaths, 62 thousand of which were males and 26 thousand were females.

This dataset contains all the data tables related to the annual data on number of alcohol-specific deaths by sex, age group and individual cause of death, UK constituent countries. Published in March 2023 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from 2001 - 2021

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The report looks at addiction and dependence in the areas of illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco in Austria. The aim is to answer the following questions: How many and which people are affected by addiction and which consumption behaviour prevails? The report combines numerous data sources such as data from treatment facilities and statistics on causes of death.
https://jasmin.goeg.at/1925/2/Epidemiologiebericht%20Sucht_2021_Annex_bf.pdf

Potential years of life lost (PYLL) due to alcohol-related conditions, all ages, directly age-standardised per 100,000 population (standardised to the ESP).

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.

Potential years of life lost (PYLL) is a measure of the potential number of years lost when a person dies prematurely. The basic concept of PYLL is that deaths at younger ages are weighted more heavily than those at older ages. The advantage in doing this is that deaths at younger ages may be seen as less important if cause-specific death rates were just used on their own in highlighting the burden of disease and injury, since conditions such as cancer and heart disease usually occur at older ages and have relatively high mortality rates.

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

Definition of numerator The number of age-specific alcohol-related deaths multiplied by the national life expectancy for each age group and summed to give the total potential years of life lost due to alcohol-related conditions.

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 national life expectancies for England have been used for all sub-national geographies to illustrate the disparities in the burden caused by alcohol between local areas and the national average.

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.

Deaths from alcohol related and attributable conditions. Time period is 2002-2007 for the three sub- Community Health Partnerships in Glasgow. A Scotland wide value is also provided for comparison. The statistics are: 5-year total number and 5-year average directly age-sex standardised rate per 100,000 population per year. ScotPHO provides a technical report Data extracted: 2014-04-24 Data supplied by Information Services Division (ISD) Licence: None

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.

This statistic depicts the distribution of alcohol-related deaths globally by broad disease category as of 2016. According to the data, 21.3 percent of deaths due to alcohol were related to digestive diseases.

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

Alcohol-related deaths by ICD code and sex, in UK constituent countries, registered 2001-2013

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.

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