Drug-related Deaths in Scotland in 2020
Submitted by Edie
- 2 August 2021
In 2020,1339 drug-related deaths were registered in Scotland.
This is a 5% increase compared to figures from 2019.
Other key findings show:
- The number of drug-related deaths has increased substantially over the last 20 years – there were 4½ times as many deaths in 2020 compared with 2000.
- Men were 2.7 times as likely to have a drug-related death than women, after adjusting for age.
- After adjusting for age, people in the most deprived parts of the country were 18 times as likely to die from a drug-related death as those in the least deprived.
- Almost two-thirds of all drug-related deaths were of people aged between 35 and 54. The average age of drug-related deaths has increased from 32 to 43 over the last 20 years.
- Greater Glasgow and Clyde had the highest drug-related death rate of all health board areas, followed by Ayrshire and Arran and Tayside.
- Scotland’s drug-death rate continues to be over 3½ times that for the UK as a whole, and higher than that of any European country.
