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Publication - Statistics

Suspected drug deaths in Scotland: October to December 2025

Published
17 March 2026
From
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, +1 more … Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy and Sport
Directorate
Population Health Directorate
Topic
Health and social care
ISBN
9781806439379

This quarterly report presents Police Scotland management information to provide an indication of current trends in suspected drug deaths in Scotland.

Part of

View supporting documents Supporting documents

3. Main points

Figure 1: After following a downward trend in 2024, the rolling 12-month total of suspected drug deaths has been increasing in 2025 Number of Police Scotland suspected drug deaths, January 2018 to December 2025
Chart showing an increasing trend in suspected drug deaths reaching a peak end of 2020 then a decrease and flattening out end 2022 with some quarter-on-quarter variation and increasing over recent quarters.

Note: Q1 is January to March, Q2 is April to June, Q3 is July to September, Q4 is October to December. Source: Police Scotland.

During 2025:

  • There were 1,146 suspected drug deaths, 8% (81) more than in 2024 (1,065).
  • Males accounted for 76% of suspected drug deaths. This compares with 74% in 2024.
  • There were 270 suspected drug deaths of females, a decrease of 4% (10) compared to 2024 (280).
  • The majority (66%) of suspected drug deaths were of people aged between 35 and 54. This is broadly in line with previous periods.
  • There were 28 suspected drug deaths in the under 25 age group, 18% (6) fewer than in 2024.
  • The Police Divisions with the greatest number of suspected drug deaths were: Greater Glasgow (243), Ayrshire (127), and Lanarkshire (116).

There were 248 suspected drug deaths recorded during the period October to December 2025. This was 15% (43) fewer than the previous quarter (July to September 2025, 291 deaths), and 7% (16) more than the same calendar quarter in the previous year (October to December 2024, 232 deaths). This is the lowest quarterly total of suspected drug deaths recorded in 2025.

Note that numbers of suspected drug deaths fluctuate from quarter to quarter. Care should be taken not to interpret movements between individual calendar quarters as indicative of any long-term trend.

More detail on the statistics presented above is available in the workbook presented alongside this report - Statistics on Suspected drug deaths in Scotland: October to December 2025

Contact

Email: HSCAnalysisHub@gov.scot

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