Official statistics from the National Records of Scotland show that there were 1,152 alcohol-specific deaths registered in Scotland in 2025, a decrease of 3% (33 deaths) compared with 2024.
This marks the second consecutive annual fall in alcohol-specific deaths, following four successive yearly increases between 2020 and 2023. Despite the decline, the number of deaths remains substantially higher than before the pandemic and the alcohol-specific death rate is still around 1.7 times higher than when records for this series began in 1994.
Additionally, 2025 saw the thirteenth consecutive year in which alcohol-specific deaths remained above 1,000. Responding to the figures, Alcohol Focus Scotland, SHAAP, WithYou, and Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs renewed calls for urgent action from the Scottish Government to reduce alcohol harm and prevent further avoidable deaths.
Alcohol-specific deaths refer only to conditions that are wholly attributable to alcohol consumption, such as alcohol-related liver disease. They do not include all deaths where alcohol is a contributing factor, meaning the wider toll of alcohol-related harm is considerably greater.
The latest figures also highlight the persistent inequalities associated with alcohol harm. In 2025, the alcohol-specific death rate in Scotland’s most deprived communities was 4.8 times higher than in the least deprived communities. By comparison, the death rate from all causes was around twice as high in the most deprived areas, underlining the particularly strong link between alcohol harm and socioeconomic deprivation.
The figures also reveal contrasting trends between men and women. While alcohol-specific deaths fell overall, driven by a 5% decrease among men, deaths among women increased by 3%. Despite this increase, the alcohol-specific death rate among men remained more than twice as high as that among women.