Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales: 2024 registrations

Today’s analysis of deaths registered in England and Wales in 2024 provides insight into deaths associated with drug poisoning.  These cases are shown by age and sex of the deceased and by geographic region.  We also show the substance or substances involved, where these are named on the death registration. Methodologies for collecting deaths relating to drug-poisoning vary from country to country, so international comparisons should be avoided.

IMPORTANT: when reporting on these ONS statistics, please be aware that they are based on the information provided on official death registration certificates. This means that:

1. Names of substances are not always included on the death registration certificate, (wording such as “drug overdose” may be used). Of the 5,565 drug poisoning deaths registered in 2024, 1,192 do not name specific substances.  Attributing drug poisoning deaths to individual substances is therefore an undercount.
2. The year in which a death is registered is not necessarily the year in which the death occurred. Most deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales are certified by a coroner and cannot be registered until an inquest is complete. This results in a delay in death registration being available for analysis.  Only 37.2% of the deaths registered in 2024 occurred in that year.  We publish separate information for year of occurrence (this is given on the death registration).

Commenting on today’s figures, David Mais from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said: “We are seeing a small but continued increase in the rate of deaths relating to drug poisoning, with opioids and opiates, such as heroin and morphine, the drugs most commonly mentioned on death registrations.  However, in a fifth of cases, no information is provided about the specific drug or drugs involved.  The more information coroners can provide on registrations, the more detailed our analysis can be of the substances most associated with drug poisoning deaths.”

Key findings for 2024 registrations

• There were 5,565 deaths related to drug poisoning registered in England and Wales, in 2024, the equivalent of 93.9 deaths per million people. This is an increase from 93.0 deaths per million recorded in 2023 registrations and continues the rise seen every year since 2012.
• Drug poising deaths are around twice as common in males as in females: Among males, there were 128.7 registered per million in 2024 (3,710 deaths), compared with 60.6 deaths per million among females (1,855 deaths).
• Of the 5,565 deaths related to drug poisoning in 2024 registrations, 3,736 were identified as drug misuse. This accounts for 63.1 deaths per million people and was highest among those aged 40-49 years (often referred to as "Generation X").
• An opiate/opioid was confirmed to have been involved in just under half (47.1% or 2,621) of all drug-poisoning deaths registered in 2024. There were 1,279 deaths involving cocaine, an increase from 1,118 for 2023 registrations, and eleven times higher than in 2011 (112 deaths). Nitazene-related deaths almost quadrupled from 52 in 2023 registrations to 195 in 2024 registrations.
• Other significant drugs mentioned on the death certificate were: pregabalin (617 deaths), diazepam (302 deaths), amphetamine (111 deaths), fentanyl (60 deaths) and ketamine (60 deaths).
• The North East continues to have the highest rates of deaths relating to drug poisoning and drug misuse (167.6 deaths per million people and 107.1 per million, respectively). London had the largest increase in the rate of drug-poisoning deaths with 76.5 deaths per million and 662 deaths, compared to 58.1 deaths per million and 500 deaths in 2023. This represents an increase of 18.4 deaths per million
• East of England had the lowest rate for drug poisoning and drug misuse (66.3 deaths per million people and 40.2 per million, respectively). The largest decrease in the rate of drug-poisoning deaths was recorded in the South West, with 83.0 deaths per million and 460 deaths, compared with 95.7 deaths per million and 526 deaths in 2023. This represents a decrease of 12.7 deaths per million.
• In Wales, there were 417 deaths related to drug poisoning registered in 2024, the equivalent of 140.4 deaths per million people, this is higher than the rate recorded in 2023 (129.2 deaths per million, 377 deaths).
• There were 5,019 deaths related to drug poisoning that occurred in England and Wales in 2023 and had been registered by the end of March 2025. This is equivalent to a rate of 85.4 deaths per million people; compared with 4,868 deaths that occurred in 2022 and were registered by the end of March 2024 (83.7 deaths per million people) - see NOTES TO EDITORS below.

Go to our release

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. We continue to focus the majority of our commentary on registration data because this relates to the previous year. The occurrence data have a lag of an additional year to allow for inquest times. We are presenting some commentary on occurrence based statistics, with a view to broadening this in future. For comparison with previous years, we have used provisional death registration data for 2025 in our occurrence-based numbers for 2023.
2. For future releases in this series, we will produce occurrence estimates, that will account for the long registration times and allow for reliable comparisons between years. Reporting data on occurrences in a year is an important contrast to the number of deaths registered in a year.

Statistics for the Public Good

For further information on this or other ONS releases, or to arrange broadcast and print interviews, please contact Media Relations on 020 3973 4761, email: Media.Relations@ons.gov.uk

Please note the ONS publishes market sensitive releases at 07:00. Other statistics are released at 09:30 unless specified. Full details on our Release Calendar

News about the ONS and insight on the work behind the numbers is available by following @ONSfocus on X.