Scottish Public Health Observatory quarterly update
March 2025

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides the Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) quarterly update on a number of topic areas. Of these topics, the Diabetes, Drugs and Chronic Liver Disease pages contain new data.

Main points

Diabetes:

• In 2023 there were 8,330 deaths in Scotland where diabetes was recorded on the death certificate. 
• Type 2 diabetes accounts for the largest proportion of mortality where diabetes was the principal cause of death. In 2023 mortality rates were reported as 2.8 per 100,000 population and 16.9 per 100,000 for type 1 and 2 diabetes respectively. When including deaths where diabetes was a contributing factor, these rates further increase, particularly for type 2 due to its increased prevalence.
• Rates of mortality directly caused by diabetes have increased since 2011. For type 1 diabetes, deaths increased by 67.4% between 2011 and 2023. For type 2 diabetes, deaths increased by 96.8% over the same period.
• For both types of diabetes, mortality and hospitalisation rates are higher for males than females. This disparity is most pronounced for hospitalisations directly due to type 2 diabetes, with men constituting 63% of these hospital admissions in 2023/24.
• In 2023/24, there were 6,203 hospital admissions with a main diagnosis of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes constituted the majority (3607; 58%) of these admissions. However, when all hospital admissions for those diagnosed with diabetes were considered, type 2 made up 86% (66,591) of admissions.

Drugs:

Health Harm: Maternity and Neonatal Discharges - Births in Scotland

• In 2023/24, drug use was recorded in 1.9% (834) of 44,383 maternities in Scotland, approximately the same as in 2022/23 (1.8%).
• The drugs most often recorded as being used during pregnancy were cannabis (11.6 per 1,000 maternities), cocaine (3.1 per 1,000 maternities) and opiates (2.5 per 1,000 maternities). Recorded opiate misuse during pregnancy has consistently decreased over the time series from 9.7 per 1,000 maternities in 2011/12.
• In 2023/24, 0.2% (104) of a total of 44,835 babies born in Scotland were recorded as having been affected by maternal use of drugs. This rate decreased steadily over time from 6.9 per 1,000 live births in 2011/12 to 2.3 per 1,000 live births in 2023/24.

Social Harm: Drug-related criminal proceedings in Scotland

• In 2022/23, there were 3,066 people convicted in cases where a drug offence was the main charge. Of these, 49% were for Class A drugs (e.g. cocaine, ecstasy, heroin), 37% for Class B drugs (e.g. amphetamines, cannabis), 8% for Class C drugs (e.g. anabolic steroids, diazepam) and in 6% of convictions the drug type was unknown.

Chronic Liver Disease:

• There were 18.4 chronic liver disease deaths per 100,000 population in Scotland in 2023.
• In 2023, chronic liver disease death rates were 4.5 times higher in the most deprived areas (41.5 per 100,000 population) compared to the least deprived areas (9.3 per 100,000 population).
• In 2023, male death rates for chronic liver disease were 1.8 times higher than those for females (23.5 compared to 13.3 per 100,000 population).
• In 2023/24, there were 180.4 hospital stays per 100,000 population including a diagnosis of chronic liver disease, a decrease of 4.1% compared to the previous year.

The following topics on the ScotPHO website have also been updated as part of the March 2025 quarterly website update.

Comparative Health:

• Excess Mortality in Scotland and Glasgow.

Health Conditions:

• Coronary Heart Disease.
• Stroke.

Population Groups:

• Religion, Spirituality and Belief.

Risk Factors:

• Alcohol.
• Drugs.
• High Cholesterol.

Wider Determinants.

• Social Environment.

Background

The Scottish Public Health Observatory collaboration is led by PHS and includes the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, National Records of Scotland, the Medical Research Council/Chief Scientist Office Social and Public Health Sciences Unit and the Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory. The aim of the collaboration is to make public health information more accessible, to promote a reduction in health inequalities and to inform health improvement in Scotland.

Further information

Data from this publication are available from the publication page of the ScotPHO website. 

The next release of these statistics will be 24 June 2025.