Drug-related deaths and deaths from drug misuse, Northern Ireland
Official statistics
Drug-related deaths and deaths due to drug misuse registered in Northern Ireland each calendar year since 2003, from NISRA.
Drug-related deaths
169
2023 · 146 due to drug misuse
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 14:51 UTC- Drug-related deaths
- Deaths due to drug misuse
Source: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
21 periods, newest first
| Period | Drug-related deaths | Deaths due to drug misuse |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 169 | 146 |
| 2022 | 154 | 129 |
| 2021 | 213 | 180 |
| 2020 | 218 | 185 |
| 2019 | 191 | 165 |
| 2018 | 192 | 161 |
| 2017 | 138 | 112 |
| 2016 | 127 | 113 |
| 2015 | 144 | 115 |
| 2014 | 110 | 88 |
| 2013 | 115 | 79 |
| 2012 | 110 | 77 |
| 2011 | 102 | 61 |
| 2010 | 92 | 64 |
| 2009 | 84 | 57 |
| 2008 | 89 | 53 |
| 2007 | 86 | 48 |
| 2006 | 91 | 49 |
| 2005 | 84 | 42 |
| 2004 | 48 | 17 |
| 2003 | 52 | 32 |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
- Check it yourself
- https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/cause-death/drug-related-deaths
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 9 November 2026, 14:49 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://ws-data.nisra.gov.uk/public/api.restful/PxStat.Data.Cube_API.ReadDataset/DTHSDRLGD/JSON-stat/2.0/enSHA-256 29e65ab08dc7997f310b64824897355ee5f6ee8dc82a060b09061748c4d72800 · 11,443 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 14:51 UTC Run at 9 November 2026, 14:51 UTC; 42 of 42 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-09T14:49:31Z; 1 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 1 of 1 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 42 of 42 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's accreditation match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 42 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 42 of 42 figures match exactly after downloading 1 source file(s) again (1 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's accreditation match |
| Pass | PxStat matrix is current | latest period 2023 ended 1044 days before retrieval (limit 1200); matrix updated 2026-03-04T9:30:00.000Z |
| Pass | PxStat CSV edition agrees | 42 of 42 figures match https://ws-data.nisra.gov.uk/public/api.restful/PxStat.Data.Cube_API.ReadDataset/DTHSDRLGD/CSV/1.0/en, where 504 of 504 cells equal the JSON-stat edition |
| Pass | Deaths by trust agree (DTHSDRHSCT, drug-related deaths) | 21 of 21 figures of Drug-related deaths equal Northern Ireland's total of NISRA's deaths by trust in https://ws-data.nisra.gov.uk/public/api.restful/PxStat.Data.Cube_API.ReadDataset/DTHSDRHSCT/JSON-stat/2.0/en |
| Pass | Deaths by trust agree (DTHSDRHSCT, deaths due to drug misuse) | 21 of 21 figures of Deaths due to drug misuse equal Northern Ireland's total of NISRA's deaths by trust in https://ws-data.nisra.gov.uk/public/api.restful/PxStat.Data.Cube_API.ReadDataset/DTHSDRHSCT/JSON-stat/2.0/en |
| Pass | Drug misuse deaths are among the drug-related | in 21 of 21 years the deaths due to drug misuse are no more than the drug-related deaths |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/cause-death/drug-related-deaths – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Deaths are counted by the year they were registered, not the year they happened. A drug misuse death is a drug-related death that also involved drug abuse or dependence, or a drug controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act, so it is counted in both lines.
- NISRA's own release has a later year in spreadsheets its robots.txt bars to scripts, so the hub shows the years its PxStat portal gives, a year behind.
- NISRA revised the series slightly after its review of suicide statistics for the registration years 2015 to 2020. These figures stay apart from the ONS's for England and Wales until the two definitions have been read side by side.