Wales's drug death rate is 58% higher than England's and did not fall in 2025

The Office for National Statistics registered 422 deaths related to drug poisoning in Wales in 2025, a rate of 141.3 deaths per million people. That is 0.6% above the 2024 rate of 140.4 per million, when 417 deaths were registered. The figures, published on 4 November, show Wales moving the other way from England, where the rate fell 1.8% to 89.5 per million (5,078 deaths). The Welsh rate is about 58% higher than England's.

Higher than any English region

The highest rate among English regions was the North East at 135.2 per million people (349 registered deaths), a region that has had the highest rate in England since 2013. Wales's 141.3 is above that. London had the lowest at 58.3.

Cocaine overtakes heroin

Across England and Wales together, 5,519 drug-poisoning deaths were registered in 2025, 46 fewer than in 2024. The age-standardised rate of 92.4 per million was the first annual fall since 2012, after 12 consecutive increases, though ONS notes it stayed close to the 2024 level. Cocaine was the most frequently mentioned substance, in 1,233 deaths, overtaking heroin or morphine at 1,210. Opiates and opioids remained the most common group, involved in 2,324 deaths, 11.3% fewer than in 2024. ONS does not give the substance breakdown for Wales alone in this release.

Who is affected

The male rate rose to 130.0 deaths per million while the female rate fell to 56.6, so men were 2.3 times as likely to die as women. People aged 40 to 49 had the highest drug-misuse death rate, at 141.4 per million.

How to read the figures

The statistics count deaths by the year they were registered, not the year they happened. Because inquests take time, 62.7% of deaths registered in 2025 occurred in earlier years.