{"id":953296,"date":"2026-05-11T20:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/953296\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T20:00:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:00:04","slug":"alcohol-deaths-in-northern-ireland-at-higher-rate-than-scotland-for-first-time-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/953296\/","title":{"rendered":"Alcohol deaths in Northern Ireland at higher rate than Scotland for first time \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Ireland now has a higher proportion of alcohol-specific deaths <\/a>than Scotland<\/a> for the first time. <\/p>\n

New figures from the UK\u2019s Office for National Statistics<\/a> showed a drastic change in outcomes in recent decades. <\/p>\n

Two decades ago, Scotland had twice the number of alcohol deaths per capita than the north.<\/p>\n

In 2001, there were 26.1 deaths per 100,000 people in Scotland compared to 12.4 in Northern Ireland, 10.1 in Wales and 8.9 in England.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/a>\"Woman’s<\/a><\/p>\n

By 2024, Northern Ireland has climbed to a rate of 21.4 deaths with Scotland at 20.9, Wales at 16.8 and England at 13.8.<\/p>\n

\"AlcoholAlcohol specific deaths in Northern Ireland have increased while reducing in Scotland. GRAPHIC: ONS <\/p>\n

Across the four regions as a whole, the ONS said that alcohol deaths were at their lowest level since 2021 (14.8 deaths per 100,000) but that the \u201cmodest reduction\u201d was \u201cnot cause for complacency.\u201d <\/p>\n

People in deprived areas were still disproportionately affected and were \u201cbetween three and four times more likely\u201d to die as a result of alcohol.<\/p>\n

A total of 9,809 deaths from alcohol were registered in the UK in 2024, meaning deaths as a direct consequence of alcohol, such as alcoholic liver disease.<\/p>\n

In Northern Ireland, the total for 2024 was 397<\/a>, the highest rate in two decades.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr Katherine Severi, chief executive at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: \u201cThe fall in alcohol deaths from 2023 to 2024 offers a small but welcome sign that the UK is moving in the right direction \u2013 but let\u2019s be clear: alcohol deaths remain at a deeply unacceptable level and we cannot allow that to become normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese deaths were unacceptably high before the pandemic. They rose sharply during it. A modest reduction is not cause for complacency \u2013 it is cause for redoubling efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chairman at the Alcohol Health Alliance, said that the deaths still \u201cremain far too high and are still significantly above pre-pandemic levels\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a stark reminder that alcohol harm continues to devastate thousands of families and communities across every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In England, the north west region had the highest death rate of 21.1, compared to London with the lowest at 10.9.<\/p>\n

Dr Severi said that people \u201ccannot ignore the scale of inequality behind these figures\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Men were still around twice as likely to die from alcohol than women at a rate of 20.2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland now has a higher proportion of alcohol-specific deaths than Scotland for the first time. New figures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[785,23523,1144,24164,712,16,15],"class_list":["post-953296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-alcohol","tag-health-and-social-care","tag-northern-ireland","tag-ons","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116557725563180980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}