The number of alcohol-specific deaths has increased by 17% to 1,190 in 2020, up from 1,020 in 2019 in Scotland. This is the largest number of deaths due to alcohol recorded since 2008.
Other key findings show that in 2020:
- Probable suicide deaths decreased by 3% to 805 deaths, from 833 in 2019. There was a downward trend in probable suicide deaths in Scotland from the early 2000s until 2017, followed by increases in 2018 and 2019.
- There was a 1.1% decrease, to 6,352, in deaths where Alzheimer’s and other dementias were the underlying cause.
- There were 2,759 accidental deaths in Scotland, a 1.2% increase compared with 2019. The majority of accidental deaths were the result of accidental poisonings or falls.
- The death rate from all causes for people in the most deprived areas is 1.9 times that of those in the least deprived. Death rates for drug-related (18.4 times as large) alcohol-specific deaths (4.3 times as large), and suicides (3.0 times as large) were notably higher in the most deprived areas.
Continued inequalities in use of greenspace