The rate of alcohol-specific deaths in Greater Manchester reached a record high in 2023 – rising by more than a quarter in five years, according to new data.
The number of deaths in the period of 2021-2023 reached 1,505, up from 1,195 in 2017-2019.
This is according to information released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) charting alcohol-specific deaths throughout the UK.
Jonny Shatwell, 35, was diagnosed as an alcoholic in 2024, but on 29 March will have been sober for a year.
He said: “It started when my mum and dad passed away when I was 19, which was the catalyst for the next 15 years of torment.
“The first year after they passed away, it was an alcohol- and drug-fuelled bender, I can’t remember a lot about that portion of my life.
“A year before I gave up, I was drinking every night, I was super depressed, I hated everyone and everything.
“It made everything ten times worse.
“I had constant arguments with my ex, because from my point of view I wasn’t the problem, she was. I’d gotten myself into such a state nothing mattered anymore.
“Finally I got help, I moved out of mine and my ex’s house, which has given me a lot of thinking time.
“I’m so grateful that I’ve been given the second chance to be a normal member of society without the devil’s juice playing a part of it.”
The region of North East England had the highest rate of alcohol deaths in the country in 2021-2023 at 25.7 per 100,000 people.
This was followed by North West England at 18.3, whilst the rate in Greater Manchester exceeded the region’s average at 19.3.
The ONS measures the rate across three-year periods.
Within Greater Manchester, Oldham had the highest rate at 22.8, whilst Trafford was the only borough in the area where the rate fell below England’s average of 14.4.
Overall 1,505 people from Manchester who died from alcohol deaths from 2021 to 2023, 21 more than between 2020 and 2022.
Ash Singleton, the director of research and public affairs at Alcohol Change UK, explained the regional divide.
He said: “While lots of people are choosing to cut back and drink less, they are often younger, more affluent groups, more likely to be living in certain areas of the country, larger cities such as London.
“Other groups are drinking more and that tends to be deprived groups and that tends to be people in areas like the North East and parts of the North West.
“This confuses the picture – you’re seeing both increasing numbers of alcohol deaths, as well as the amount of alcohol consumed in the population falling.”
As the graph shows, the number of alcohol-specific deaths in the most deprived areas is nearly three times more than in the least disadvantaged.
Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) was by far the leading cause of alcohol-specific deaths across the UK in 2023 accounting for 75.6% of deaths.
This was followed by mental and behavioural disorders caused by alcohol at 15%, followed by accidental poisoning by and exposure to alcohol at 5.3%.
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) said: “Greater Manchester wants all of its residents to Live Well and tackling the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol is a key part of this.
“Working alongside NHS Greater Manchester we are taking a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to understand those who are at greatest risk and bring about positive change.”
What next?
Alcohol Change UK started Dry January in 2013, with an estimated 15.5 million Brits taking the month off alcohol in 2025.
They are calling for a collective approach to tackle the rising number of alcohol-specific deaths.
Singleton said: “There’s a role for everyone in reducing this because it’s such a big issue.
“There’s a big opportunity, particularly with the powers that are coming to local and combined governments through devolution plans to play that role at a local level.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority published their Combatting Drugs Partnership Progress report in January 2025, which introduced the GM drug and alcohol related surveillance system.
They employ treatment records and coroner’s reports to provide accounts where alcohol toxicity-related deaths occurred.
A GMCA spokesperson said: “GMCA has commissioned a comprehensive GM Drugs Intelligence System that reports to the GM Drug and Alcohol Transformation Board which is recognised as the most comprehensive system in the country and comprises of three elements; the GM Drug and Alcohol Related Deaths Surveillance System, the GM Drugs Early Warning System, and GM TRENDS – a drug testing and research project.
“The extensive collaboration across our work with health and justice partners across our 10 boroughs uses evidence such as treatment records and coroners reports to learn the lessons from each tragic case across public services, aims to reduce the likelihood of similar deaths occurring in the future.”
Shatwell has called for a change in societal attitudes towards alcohol.
He said: “I could walk to the shop at 11 o’clock in the morning and buy a litre bottle of vodka and no one would bat an eye, but if I went to that same shop and asked for a gram of coke there would be an up roar, why?
“They will both kill if you consume too much but one is fine and the other isn’t. That is where it starts.
Most English supermarkets allow the sale of alcohol for the duration of the time they are open to the public.
Due to the Licensing Act 2003, shops can sell alcohol for 24 hours if they have been granted a license allowing them to do so, which are issued by local councils.
“In the future alcoholism needs to be spoken about in schools,” Shatwell added.
“It needs to be openly discussed about how easily you can get gripped by it and how hard it is to get out of its grip.
“Alcohol is everywhere you go, you can’t escape it. You just accept that it’s there and stay away from it because you know what chaos it brings.”
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