Drug deaths in Scotland rise 11% as country struggles with worst rate in Europe

Deaths related to illicit drugs rose by 11% in Scotland last year to 1,133 as the country struggles to tackle the worst fatality rate in Europe.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) said the figure for 2025 was 116 higher than the previous year, bringing the total deaths in a decade to more than 11,000.

After adjusting for age, there were 21.4 drug-related deaths per million people.

NRS defines drug-related deaths as those where the underlying cause was drug poisoning, a controlled substance was in the body at the time of death, and drug use led directly to the death.

Efforts to save lives over the past year have been hampered by criminal gangs mixing powerful synthetic opioids such as nitazenes with existing drugs including heroin, cocaine and fake Valium pills.

NRS said the increase had been driven by a rise in deaths of male drug users. This increased by 19%, while the rate of female deaths fell by 5%.

The rate of drug-related deaths in the most deprived areas of Scotland was 15 times as high as in the least deprived areas.

The average age of death has increased from 32 in 2000 to 46 years in 2025.

When comparing Scotland with the rest of Europe, NRS measures the death rate among 15-64 year olds - which was 277 per million in 2025.

The next highest rate in Europe was Estonia with 112 deaths per million in 2024, the most recent year for which figures are available from the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA).

NRS says its methodology produces "similar" outcomes to EUDA's count of "drug-induced deaths", with the caveat that the two methods use slightly different lists of drugs.

When comparing Scotland with the rest of the UK, NRS uses a wider measure of age-adjusted drug poisoning deaths.

This includes all deaths where the underlying cause was listed as mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance abuse or poisoning by drugs whether accidental, intentional, of unknown intent or as a result of assault.

The most recent comparable data are for 2024 and show that Scotland had an age-adjusted death rate of 216 per million compared with 91 for England, 140 for Wales and 135 for Northern Ireland.