Official Statistics

Alcohol Profiles for England: short statistical commentary, February 2024

Published 6 February 2024

Applies to England

What’s new

New data have been added to the Alcohol Profile tool on the Fingertips platform. The following indicators have been updated and are available at local authority level as well as for England, the regions, and various inequality groups:

• alcohol-specific mortality
• alcohol-related mortality
• mortality from chronic liver disease
• potential years of life lost (PYLL) due to alcohol-related conditions
• casualties in road traffic accidents where a failed breath test (or refusal to provide a sample) occurred

The following new indicator has been added to the profile and is available at local authority level as well as for England, the regions, and various inequality groups:

• estimated cost per capita of alcohol-related hospital admissions (broad)

Following the publication by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) of rebased mid-year population estimates based on the results of the Census 2021, all mortality trends have been recalculated and restored to the Alcohol Profile.

Introduction

The Alcohol Profile brings together indicators related to alcohol including alcohol-specific and alcohol-related mortality and hospital admissions. The indicators in the Alcohol Profile were selected following consultation with stakeholders and a review of the availability of routine data. The profile is part of a series of products by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) that provide local data alongside national comparisons to support local health improvement.

The Mortality Profile has also been updated, including indicators for a range of causes of death, making it easier to compare outcomes across causes of death. For a summary of the main findings for other causes of death please view the Mortality Profile: February 2024.

Mortality rates produced for the Alcohol Profile are directly age-standardised rates, which adjust for differences in the age structure of the population between areas and population groups.

Main findings

This update shows:

• in 2022, there were 7,912 alcohol-specific deaths (wholly due to alcohol) in England which was an increase of 56.7% from 5,050 deaths in 2006 and a 4.7% increase since 2021. The trends in alcohol-related deaths (deaths wholly or partly due to alcohol) and deaths from chronic liver disease are similar
• all 3 mortality rates updated were fairly stable between 2006 and 2019 before increasing sharply in 2020 followed by smaller increases in each of 2021 and 2022. The mortality rate between 2019 and 2022 increased by 34.5% for alcohol-specific mortality, 8.8% for alcohol-related mortality, and 20.5% for mortality from chronic liver disease
• in 2022, the alcohol-specific mortality rate was highest in the North East region (21.8 per 100,000 population) and lowest in the East of England region (11.0 per 100,000 population). The inequalities by region were similar for mortality from chronic liver disease but London had the lowest rate for alcohol-related mortality
• the alcohol-specific mortality rate in the most deprived tenth of upper tier local authority areas was double the rate in the least deprived tenth (20.9 and 9.7 per 100,000 population respectively). There was a similar inequality gradient for alcohol-related mortality and mortality from chronic liver disease

Figure 1: directly standardised alcohol-specific mortality rate, all ages, England, 2006 to 2022

Source: calculated by OHID Population Health Analysis (PHA) team from Office for National Statistics (ONS) death registration data and ONS mid-year population estimates.

Definitions

Alcohol-specific mortality: deaths from conditions wholly caused by alcohol. This definition is also used by the ONS in their annual UK data release.

Alcohol-related mortality: deaths from conditions which are wholly or partially caused by alcohol. For partially attributable conditions, a fraction of the deaths are included based on the latest academic evidence about the contribution alcohol makes to the condition.

Mortality from chronic liver disease: deaths from chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis, classified by an underlying cause of death with ICD-10 code K70, K73 or K74 (all deaths included here are included in alcohol-related mortality rates).

Potential years of life lost (PYLL) due to alcohol-related conditions: 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.

Estimated cost per capita of alcohol-related hospital admissions (broad): the total estimated cost (£s) of alcohol-related admissions (broad). Admissions to hospital where the primary diagnosis is an alcohol-related condition, or a secondary diagnosis is an alcohol-related external cause.

Revisions

The February 2024 update included a full revision of the mortality rates available in the Alcohol Profile. This was required as ONS have released rebased mid-year population estimates for 2012 to 2020 following the results of the 2021 Census.

Further information

The Alcohol Profiles have been published on an annual basis since 2006. These profiles have been designed to help local government and health services assess the effect of alcohol use on their local populations. They will inform commissioning and planning decisions to tackle alcohol use and improve the health of local communities.

The Alcohol Profile data tool helps local areas assess alcohol-related harm and monitor the progress of efforts to reduce this.

View the Alcohol Profile tool.

Responsible statistician, product lead: Mark Cook.

For queries relating to this publication, please contact: profilefeedback@dhsc.gov.uk.