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Friday, January 25, 2008

Alcohol Deaths
Rates in the UK continue to rise

Sources: Office for National Statistics, General Register Office for Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

Published on 25 January 2008


Alcohol-related death rates by sex, United Kingdom, 1991-2006
Alcohol-related death rates by sex, United Kingdom, 1991-2006

The alcohol­-related death rate in the UK continued to increase in 2006, rising from 12.9 deaths per 100,000 population in 2005 to 13.4 in 2006. Rates almost doubled from 6.9 per 100,000 in 1991. The number of alcohol-related deaths more than doubled from 4,144 in 1991 to 8,758 in 2006.

In 2006 the male death rate (18.3 deaths per 100,000 population) was more than twice the rate for females (8.8 deaths per 100,000) and males accounted for two thirds of the total number of deaths.

For men, the death rates in all age groups increased between 1991 and 2006. The biggest increase was for men aged 35-54. Rates in this age group more than doubled, from 13.4 to 31.1 deaths per 100,000 over the period. However the highest rates in each year were for men aged 55-74.

Male alcohol-related death rates by age group, United Kingdom, 1991-2006

Male alcohol-related death rates by age group, United Kingdom, 1991-2006


Death rates by age group for females were consistently lower than rates for males, however trends showed a broadly similar pattern by age. The death rate for women aged 35­-54 doubled between 1991 and 2006, from 7.2 to 14.8 per 100,000 population, a larger increase than the rate for women in any other age group. As for men, the highest rates in each year were for the 55-74 age group.

Between 2005 and 2006, for both sexes, rates remained the same for those aged 15-34 and increased for those aged 35-54 and 55-74. There were small falls in the rates for those aged over 75, down 8 per cent for men and 6 per cent for women.


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