Statistics and a brief history of key events
Addiction problems and their cosequences cut across multiple government departments. The aim is to have accessible, high quality, effective, person-centred alcohol and drug treatment and recovery systems, judged by…
how quickly people get appointments
how close the services are to the people they serve
if services are welcoming to new people
how accessible services are for disabled people
how to provide services for people with low literacy
how responsive services are to different groups of people
How common is addiction?
Our opinion
The main source of UK statistics is from agency reported data and the data are used primarily to inform commissioning. It follows that these data are vulnerable to ‘gaming’ errors and of limited clinical value. Data collection is crucial both for formulating drug and alcohol policy and for commissioning, so, the quality of the data needs to be verified and the cost of its collection needs justification.
There were 329,646 adults aged 18 and over in contact with drug and alcohol treatment services between April 2024 and March 2025. Just over two-fifths (42%) of adults in treatment were there for problems with opiates. People in treatment for alcohol alone make up the second largest group (30%) of adults in treatment. There was an increase in the proportion of adults entering treatment in 2024 to 2025 with ketamine problems (from 2.3% in 2023 to 2024 to 3.2% this year).
Read the full report…
The European Union Drugs Agency, EUDA, compiles the European Drug Report 2025: Trends and Developments which presents the EUDA’s latest analysis of the drug situation in Europe. Focusing on illicit drug use, related harms and drug supply, the report provides a comprehensive set of national data across these themes, as well as on specialist drug treatment and key harm reduction interventions. There are many pages of data to view.
Read the key developments…
This is a 2012/13 survey of drinking habits and related problems in the United States - the data are presented in tables by multiple demographic variables. Some headline findings: drinkers in the previous year 73% of the whole population; 15% 5+ units of alcohol weekly or more; 21% had DSM5 alcohol use disorder of whom 8% were receiving treatment; former drinkers 16%; lifetime abstainers 11%.
Read the full report…
more about addiction…
