Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK fell in 2024 for the first time since 2018, new figures from the ONS found, but remain significantly higher than before the pandemic.
There were 9,809 alcohol-specific deaths registered in 2024 – a decrease of 664 deaths (6.3%) compared with 2023, when deaths reached a record high of 10,473. The death rate also fell to 14.8 per 100,000 people, down from 15.9 in 2023 and the lowest since 2020.
Despite this improvement, deaths remain far above pre-pandemic levels. Between 2019 and 2023, alcohol deaths rose by more than a third, highlighting the lasting impact of the pandemic on alcohol harm.
The data also shows stark inequalities across the UK. Northern Ireland now has the highest alcohol-specific death rate of any UK nation, at 21.4 deaths per 100,000 people – a record high and the only nation to see an increase in 2024. Scotland continues to have similarly high rates (20.9), while England (13.8) and Wales (16.8) are lower.
Within England, the North East continues to have the highest death rate (21.1 per 100,000), almost double that of London (10.9), although the gap between regions has begun to narrow.
Men remain around twice as likely to die from alcohol as women, and while death rates fell for most age groups, they increased among people aged 80 and over.
In England, men in the most deprived group were 4 times more likely to die compared to the least deprived group – and women 3 times more likely. And in Wales those figures were 2.8 and 2.5 times more likely.
IAS’s Chief Executive Dr Katherine Severi said:
The fall in alcohol deaths from 2023 to 2024 offers a small but welcome sign that the UK is moving in the right direction – but let’s be clear: alcohol deaths remain at a deeply unacceptable level, and we cannot allow that to become normal. These deaths were unacceptably high before the pandemic. They rose sharply during it. A modest reduction is not cause for complacency – it is cause for redoubling efforts.
We also cannot ignore the scale of inequality behind these figures. People in the most deprived communities are still between three and four times more likely to die from alcohol than those in the least deprived areas, despite drinking less. That gap is neither inevitable nor acceptable. Regional differences tell a similar story: the North East of England continues to experience far higher death rates than other regions, even if the gap has begun to narrow. And across the UK, Northern Ireland now has the highest alcohol-specific death rate of any nation and was the only country that saw an increase in its death rate – which makes the DUP’s block on minimum unit pricing all the more indefensible.
We already know what works: minimum unit pricing has been shown in Scotland to narrow health inequalities. With the UK Government having explicitly committed to reducing health inequalities in its manifesto, there is a clear and evidence-based route available. Given that alcohol harm is one of the largest drivers of health inequality, continued inaction on proven measures is increasingly difficult to justify.