Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK fall for the first time since the Covid pandemic

Office for National Statistics figures show alcohol-specific deaths in the UK fell by 3.6% in 2025 to 9,842 — the first annual fall since the Covid pandemic began. The decline is being treated as a meaningful inflection point for alcohol policy.

The fall is not even across age groups. ONS reports a 7.1% drop among men aged 55 to 64, but a 4.2% rise among women aged 25 to 34. The data suggest that alcohol-related harm is shifting between genders and age cohorts.

Dr Katherine Severi, chief executive of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, told the BBC: "This is a modest reduction. We know alcohol consumption rose during the pandemic, and what we are now seeing may simply be a slow return to baseline. The pressure for structural change to make the trend permanent should not slacken."

The ONS data show that about 79% of alcohol-specific deaths are attributed to liver disease, which captures cirrhosis and alcoholic hepatitis. Other alcohol-linked causes of death — such as alcohol-induced heart-rhythm disorders — are not in this count, so the true total is likely higher.

Scotland's minimum unit pricing (MUP) policy has been in force since 2018, and Wales introduced a similar measure in 2020. Academic studies indicate that alcohol sales in MUP areas have fallen by around 7.5%. The Westminster parliament set up a working group on MUP in March, but no legislation has been tabled.

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, a clinical epidemiologist at King's College London, said: "Liver disease is hard to walk back once it has started. If the 2025 number is a real trend, its full effect will be visible over three to five years. We also need to remember that all the patients waiting for treatment are still on the list."

NHS England reports that hospital admissions for alcohol-related diseases ran at about 1.1 million last year. That hospital load is around 9% of NHS emergency presentations. Public Health Scotland separately reports that alcohol-related A&E visits in 2025 were 8% lower than in 2024.

International comparison places the trend in context. Eurostat puts the average EU adult consumption at 9.5 litres of pure alcohol per year. The UK is at 10.8 litres, above the average; France is at 11.4 litres, higher still. Turkey's adult per-capita consumption is around 1.9 litres, among the lowest in Europe.

Public-health specialists recommend that alcohol duties be uprated in line with inflation. A report by the Royal College of Physicians this week showed that successive cuts to alcohol duty have cumulatively softened it by 14% in real terms over five years. The college's submission to the Treasury proposes an automatic annual uprating mechanism.

A government spokesperson told the BBC: "We welcome the fall in alcohol-related deaths, but a robust alcohol policy is a long-term goal. The Home Office is working on alcohol access regulation and a consultation on labelling rules has been opened." Final rules are expected to be put to parliament in autumn 2026.