The number of alcohol-specific deaths in Northern Ireland has fallen for the first time since 2013, however the 2018 total remains the third highest on record. This is one of the findings of the statistics published today by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). The statistics show that, in 2018, 284 of the 15,922 deaths registered in Northern Ireland were due to alcohol-specific causes. This is 16.9 per cent more than was recorded a decade previously (243) but 6.3 per cent lower than the 2017 total of 303, which was the highest on record. Alcohol-specific deaths continue to account for less than two per cent of all deaths registered each year. The figures also show that around two thirds of Northern Ireland alcohol-specific deaths each year relate to males. 

In 2018, 196 (69.0%) alcohol-specific deaths were males and 88 (31.0%) were females. The majority of those who died with alcohol-specific underlying causes each year since 2008 have been in the 45-54 and 55-64 age groups, accounting for between 59.2% and 68.5% of all alcohol-specific deaths each year. In recent years the proportion of those who died from alcohol-specific causes that are aged 55-64 has increased; in 2018 this age group accounted for over a third of such deaths (36.6%), while those aged 45-54 accounted for 29.6% of the total. The statistics (based on the period 2014 to 2018) also indicate that there are notably higher numbers of alcohol-specific deaths in areas of deprivation across Northern Ireland, with the death rate in the most deprived areas (27.4 deaths per 100,000 population) being over three times higher than that in the least deprived areas (7.6 deaths per 100,000 population).