• Official figures show that there were 397 alcohol-specific deaths in NI in 2024 – the highest total on record and 80% higher than a decade earlier.
  • The total number of deaths in the most-deprived areas was almost four times higher than in the least-deprived areas. This comparison of the number of deaths is technically different from the figure for the death rate expressed in the claim, but represents something very similar.
  • Academic research has found that 61% of alcohol-related hospital admissions come from 3% of the population.
  • Data from Public Health Scotland indicates that the introduction of minimum unit pricing in the country directly led to a 13.4% reduction in alcohol specific deaths.

In a Member’s Statement to the Assembly about minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol, UUP MLA Alan Chambers claimed:

“On 11 February 2026, the latest statistics confirmed that there were 397 alcohol-specific deaths in Northern Ireland in 2024, the highest number on record.

“Over the past decade, the number of deaths has risen by more than 80%, and, in our most deprived communities, the rate is nearly four times higher than in our most-affluent areas …  In fact, 60% of alcohol-related hospital admissions come from just 3% of the population: the heaviest drinkers. That is where MUP would deliver the greatest impact.

“In Scotland, MUP reduced alcohol sales by 3% and cut the number of deaths wholly attributable to alcohol by 13%.”

There are several aspects to this article:

  • There were 397 alcohol-specific deaths in NI in 2024, which is the highest number on record, signifying an 80% on a decade prior. The death rate in the most-deprived communities is nearly four times higher than in the least-deprived areas.
  • 60% of alcohol-related hospital admissions come from just 3% of the population.
  • In Scotland, minimum unit pricing for alcohol cut the number of deaths wholly attributable to alcohol by 13%.

Each of these aspects is supported by evidence.

Official data shows there were 397 alcohol-specific deaths in NI in 2024, which is 80% higher than a decade previously as well as the highest figure since records began in 2004.

These official figures do not specifically state that the death rate in the most-deprived areas is almost four times higher than in the least-deprived areas. However they do include the (similar but not equivalent) finding that the total number of deaths in the 20% most-deprived areas was almost four times higher than in the 20% least-deprived areas.

Research from the University of Sheffield, published in 2023, found that 61% of alcohol-related hospital admissions (as well as 76% of all deaths) “come from the heaviest drinking 3% of the population.”

A report published by Public Health Scotland and medical journal The Lancet, published in 2022, found that the introduction of minimum unit pricing in the country had directly led to a 13.4% reduction in alcohol specific deaths.

For more information, read on.

  • Source

FactCheckNI contacted Mr Chambers about this claim but, at the time of writing, had received no reply.

  • Specific and related

Before we look at the figures, it is important to note that Mr Chambers’ claims covers two different types of connection between alcohol consumption and death.

Alcohol-specific deaths include “deaths from causes known to be exclusively caused by alcohol consumption, otherwise known as wholly attributable deaths.”

Alcohol-related deaths, also known as “alcohol-attributable deaths”, include “deaths from any cause that can be attributed to alcohol.” This includes alcohol-specific causes, such as alcoholic liver disease, as well as causes made more likely by alcohol but which can occur in people who do not drink, such as heart disease or various types of cancer.

  • Deaths

On 11 February this year, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) published a report called Alcohol-Specific Deaths in Northern Ireland, 2014 to 2024. According to that report:

“There was a total of 397 alcohol-specific deaths registered in Northern Ireland in 2024. Since 2014, Northern Ireland has seen registered deaths due to alcohol-specific causes rise by 81.3% from 219 to 397 in 2024 …

“The alcohol-specific age-standardised mortality rate per 100,000 people was the highest on record in 2024 (21.4), up from 12.9 in 2014 …

NISRA’s records on this topic began in 2004 and, as can be seen from the graph below, 2024 saw the highest number of alcohol-specific deaths on record.

Figure 1 – source: NISRA

Regarding where these deaths occur, and their relationship to the levels of deprivation in different areas, the report states:

“The most deprived areas in Northern Ireland experienced the highest number of alcohol-specific deaths at 658 (36.7%) in the last 5 years (2020 to 2024), compared with 177 (9.9%) in the least deprived areas.

“This compares to the figures presented in the 2023 report, where 37.6% of alcohol-specific deaths in the previous 5 years were in the most deprived areas and 9.8% were in the least deprived areas.”

In 2024, the number of alcohol-specific deaths in the most-deprived areas of NI was 658 / 177 = 3.72 times higher than the number of deaths in the least-deprived areas. In 2023 that ratio was similar.

Note that the claim states that the death “rate” in NI’s most-deprived communities is nearly four times higher than in the most affluent areas. This is not quite what the report is saying – although it is very similar.

Instead, the report says that the number of deaths in the 20% most-deprived areas of NI is almost four times higher than in the 20% least-deprived.

These ideas of most- and least-deprived are based on NI’s measures of multiple deprivation, and the areas are local Super Output Areas (SOAs). The reason these two similar statements are not necessarily the same is because Northern Ireland’s 890 SOAs do not all have identical populations and therefore the ratio of the two death rates (number of deaths per capita, adjusted for age and other non-deprivation-related considerations) cannot be assumed to be directly in proportion to the ratio of the total number of deaths.

However, what Mr Chambers said in the Assembly chamber is still fairly accurate.

Based on all this, the first aspect of this claim is supported by evidence.

It is also worth noting that the percentage of alcohol-specific deaths rises reasonably steadily between each quintile relating to deprivation areas:

Figure 2 – source: NISRA (note that the X-axis on this chart is erroneously labelled as percentage of alcohol-related deaths, an error that is replicated in the “Data” visualisation of this same chart, as well as the spreadsheet linked to in the report which provides the source data – it is clear from the wider context, and the figure’s title, that this is meant to say “Alcohol-Specific Deaths” and we have contacted NISRA to notify them of the error, with them responding quickly to say this will be rectified)

  • Hospital admissions

In April 2023, academics from the University of Sheffield published a report titled Model-based appraisal of Minimum Unit Pricing and Promotion Restrictions for alcohol in Northern Ireland. This paper includes a finding that:

“Alcohol-attributable deaths and hospital admissions are concentrated in increasing and higher risk drinkers, with 76% of all deaths and 61% of all hospital admissions due to alcohol coming from the heaviest drinking 3% of the population.”

The report’s authors state that hospital admissions figures were supplied by the Department of Health. Alcohol consumption data was modelled on data taken from DoH’s 2017/18 and 2019/20 Health Surveys for Northern Ireland.

This provides evidence in support of the second aspect of the claim.

  • Scotland

A 2023 paper from Public Health Scotland and medical journal The Lancet examined the effect of minimum unit pricing for alcohol (MUP) on alcohol-related deaths and hospital admissions in the country.

It estimated that there had been a 13.4% reduction in alcohol-specific deaths due to the introduction of MUP, with an average of 156 such deaths averted each year over the study period following MUP implementation.

The research also estimated that MUP reduced alcohol-specific hospital admissions by 4.1% since it was established.

Dr Grant Wyper, Public Health Intelligence Adviser at PHS, said:

“Our study estimates that, following more than two and a half years of implementation, around 150 deaths, and around 400 hospital admissions, wholly attributable to alcohol consumption, were averted each year due to MUP. The greatest reductions were seen for chronic alcohol health harms, in particular alcoholic liver disease, which were slightly offset with less certain evidence of increases in acute alcohol health harms. The findings highlight that the largest reductions were found for males, and for those living in the 40% most deprived areas, groups which are known to experience disproportionally high levels of alcohol health harms in Scotland.”

This provides evidence in support of the third aspect of the claim.