Main points

• Provisional data for England and Wales show there were 7,423 deaths (13.0 per 100,000 people) from alcohol-specific causes registered in 2020, a 19.6% increase compared with 2019 (6,209 deaths; 11.0 per 100,000 people) and the highest annual total in our time-series (beginning in 2001).
• There were 1,963 alcohol-specific deaths registered in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) of 2020, and with an age-standardised rate of 13.6 deaths per 100,000 people, this was the highest rate for any quarter in almost two decades.
• When comparing the same quarter across the years, the rate in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2020 was statistically similar to rates in previous years, however, rates in Quarter 2 (Apr to June), Quarter 3 (July to Sept) and Quarter 4 2020 were all statistically significantly higher than in any other year back to 2001.
• The difference between 2019 and 2020 has been increasing in each successive quarter; the age-standardised rate in 2020 was 8.5% higher in Quarter 1, 17.4% higher in Quarter 2, 21.9% in Quarter 3 and 28.3% higher in Quarter 4, than in the equivalent quarter of 2019.
• Provisional analysis for England shows that the male alcohol-specific death rate in 2020 was 4.2 times higher in the most deprived local areas than the least deprived local areas (34.1 compared with 8.1 deaths per 100,000, respectively); in 2019 the same rate was 3.8 higher in the most deprived local areas than the least deprived local areas (29.1 compared with 7.6 deaths per 100,000, respectively).