Alcohol killed a record number of people in 2022, research shows
New data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed that over 10,000 people died from alcohol-specific causes in 2022 as people hit the bottle during the pandemic.
Excessive alcohol intake can cause serious health conditions such as heart disease, strokes, liver disease and high blood pressure. However, new research from the ONS displays that during lockdown, people perhaps weren’t considering these effects as, tragically, 10,048 people died from alcohol-related problems in 2022 – the highest level since records began in 2001 and a sharp increase on the pre-pandemic trend that had been steady since 2012.
According to the figures, which were published yesterday – 22nd April 2024 – Scotland and Northern Ireland recorded more deaths than England per capita.
Experts found that almost 2,500 more people died from drinking than in 2019, the year before the virus hit and caused already heavy drinkers to increase their intake.
David Mais, a health statistician at the ONS, said: ‘Research has suggested that people who were already drinking at high levels before the pandemic were the most likely to have increased their drinking before this period.
‘This is likely a factor in the increase in alcohol-specific deaths registrations we have seen in 2022. Alcoholic liver disease was the leading cause of these deaths, and as with previous years, rates are much higher among men.’
The latest figures show 836 men and 440 women died as a result of alcohol and that in England, the worst affected region was the North East.
Commenting on the news, Dr Richard Piper, chief executive of Alcohol Change UK, said the government need to be doing more to stop people from drinking themselves to death.
‘Each one of those deaths is a tragedy, representing a period who has had their life cut short and has left behind people who are grieving and miss them every day’, Dr Piper said. ‘Years of inaction on alcohol harm has led to this, and the heartbreaking thing is these deaths were totally avoidable. Our government has the responsibility and the power to put preventative measures in place, including proper regulation of alcohol marketing, clearer alcohol labelling, and a minimum price for a unit of alcohol.’
Echoing a similar tone, Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of Alcohol Health Alliance UK, said: ‘Alcohol is cheaper, more available, and more heavily marketed today than ever before. As the death toll reaches record levels, so do the profits of the multibillion-pound drinks industry. There’s clear public support for policies that tackle this crisis, despite what we hear from the industry about claims of a nanny state.’
When the pandemic hit and pubs and restaurants shut their doors, research shows people in England purchased 12.6 million extra litres of alcohol from off-licences in 2020 to 2021 compared with 2019 to 2020.
Although no restrictions were put in place for people in England buying alcohol during this period, countries such as South Africa, Thailand, India, Kenya and Barbados curbed sales to stop people from socialising to prevent spreading the virus and cutting hospital admissions from drink-fuelled violence.
Image: Paolo Bendandi
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