Drug deaths in Scotland rise 11% as country struggles with worst rate in Europe
Drug-related deaths in Scotland rose by 11% in 2025, reaching 1,133 fatalities and maintaining the country's status as having the highest drug death rate in Europe. The increase is attributed to the prevalence of synthetic opioids like nitazenes and significant disparities between deprived and affluent areas.
Why it matters
The persistent rise in fatalities highlights a severe public health crisis that continues to challenge Scottish social and healthcare policy.
By James Cook Scotland editor Published 23 September 2026, 09:32 BST Updated 12 minutes ago 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.
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