Notes:

Absolute numbers from different countries are not directly comparable since differences remain in case definition and recording methods.

The national definitions used to report to the EMCDDA and the methods used are described in [Methods and definitions - drug-related deaths].

National definitions usually refer to acute deaths directly related to drug consumption ("overdoses", "poisonings" or "drug-induced"). Note that, in a few countries, the figures include also a limited number of cases of deaths indirectly related to drug use (e.g. AIDS, accidents with positive toxicology). See [Methods and definitions – drug-related deaths]. Note in addition that in some countries, statistics published at national level may differ of those presented here for differences of case definition used at national level.

(1) United Kingdom (ONS): Definition used by Office for National Statistics (ONS).

(2) United Kingdom (DSD): In addition are presented figures from the recently developed Drug Strategy Definition (DSD) of drug-related deaths: it is an extract from the ONS definition that includes cases with drugs controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971. For details refer to [Methods and definitions – drug-related deaths]. The DSD definition is relatively similar to the EMCDDA definition for General Mortality Registries ("Selection B"); in 2001 for UK the DSD computes 1983 cases and EMCDDA Selection B 1827 cases; for 2002 DSD computes 1972 cases and the Selection B 1815.

(3) Corrected Index: 1985=100.
A few countries did not provide data for some years (see table). To correct this situation, the computation method used is defined in the report ["European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2001). Coordination of the implementation of the EMCDDA standard guidelines on the drug-related deaths in the EU Member States, and the collection and analysis of information on drug-related deaths"], Project CT.99.RTX.04, Coordinated by the Trimbos Institute. Lisbon: EMCDDA.

For 2003 the index is provisional, computed on the basis of the countries that provided data both for 2002 and 2003.