Deaths
Victoria State
Victorian deaths related to alcohol and illicit drugs.
Source: Australian Coordinating Registry (ACR) – Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
Analysis by Turning Point
ERP from ABS release dated 29 August 2024 (Population estimates by age and sex, by LGA, 2001 to 2023)
Data for 2020, 2021 and 2022 use preliminary files and are subject to change. All data up to 2019 use final files.
Last update: 31 October 2025
Metro/Regional
Victorian deaths related to alcohol and illicit drugs.
Source: Australian Coordinating Registry (ACR) – Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
Analysis by Turning Point
ERP from ABS release dated 29 August 2024 (Population estimates by age and sex, by LGA, 2001 to 2023)
Data for 2020, 2021 and 2022 use preliminary files and are subject to change. All data up to 2019 use final files.
Last update: 31 October 2025
Local Government Areas (LGA)
Victorian deaths related to alcohol and illicit drugs.
Source: Australian Coordinating Registry (ACR) – Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
Analysis by Turning Point
ERP from ABS release dated 29 August 2024 (Population estimates by age and sex, by LGA, 2001 to 2023)
Data for 2020, 2021 and 2022 use preliminary files and are subject to change. All data up to 2019 use final files.
Last update: 31 October 2025
Definitions
Deaths reported on AODstats are presented by the reference year (calendar year). Further details on the reference year can be found in the methods document. Data may not match that published elsewhere by registration/death year.
Causes of death data for more recent years (2020 onwards) are preliminary and subject to a revision process. Alcohol/Drug-induced deaths will differ with future revisions.
Drug categories
These are determined using ICD-10 codes in the underlying cause of death (UCOD) and/or the multiple cause of death (MCOD) levels. Further details on the ICD-10 code used can be found in the methods document.- All Drugs (Any) – cause of death where any alcohol induced, alcohol related, or drug induced category was attributed.
- Alcohol Induced – causes of death attributable to alcohol induced mortality. Alcohol induced causes exclude accidents, homicides and other causes indirectly related to alcohol use. Also excluded are newborn deaths associated with maternal alcohol use.
- Alcohol Related – Alcohol related to causes that contributed to death and may or may not have been related to the underlying cause (e.g. a person with alcohol dependence syndrome (F10.2, alcohol code) who died after sustaining a head injury (S06, injury code) from falling down the stairs (W10, external cause code).
- Analgesic Induced – cause of death attributable to analgesics.
- Antidepressant Induced – cause of death attributable to antidepressants.
- Antipsychotic Induced – cause of death attributable to antipsychotics.
- Benzodiazepine Induced – cause of death attributable to benzodiazepines.
- Cannabis Induced – cause of death attributable to cannabis.
- Drug Induced – those which are directly attributable to drug use. These include deaths due to acute drug toxicity (e.g. overdose) and chronic drug use (e.g. drug-induced cardiac conditions).
- Hallucinogen Induced – cause of death attributable to hallucinogens.
- Heroin Induced – cause of death attributable to heroin.
- Opioid Induced – cause of death attributable to opioids (excluding heroin).
- Pharmacotherapy Induced – cause of death attributable to pharmacotherapy substances (e.g. Methadone).
- Sedative Induced – cause of death attributable to sedatives.
- Stimulant Induced – cause of death attributable to stimulants.
Note: Alcohol-induced and alcohol-related deaths are mutually exclusive (i.e. where a death has both an underlying and an associated cause related to alcohol, it is counted only once).
Methods
Scope
AODstats provides the ability to track trends of acute harms at the community level, and help inform policy and strategies to intervene and minimise the impact or spread of these harms. This information provides a convenient, interactive, statistical resource for policy planners, drug service providers, health professionals and other key stakeholders, interested in the harms relating to alcohol and other drug use in Victoria.Data Analysis
For further information on the analysis, please see the methods document (the document opens in a new tab).- Data indicator: Mortality
- Data Source: Australian Coordinating Registry (ARC) – Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
- Details of data analysis: Fatalities involving alcohol or drugs were extracted from the Cause of Death (COD) Unit Record File (URF), where aetiological fractions (AF) were then applied to estimate the alcohol or drug related harms. The AF provides an estimate of the likelihood that the case was caused by high-risk consumption of alcohol or illicit drugs. Data presented is based upon residential location.
- Year = Reference Year (calendar)
Metrics presented
- Numbers: cell sizes less than 5 are obfuscated in line with ethics and data custodian requirements. Some other categorical data may also be obfuscated if a category can be calculated by subtracting any remaining categories from the total.
- Rates: rates are calculated in several ways. These include crude rates, age-specific rates and age and gender-standardised rates. Rates are calculated using the most recent mid-year ERP data (where practical). For visualisations and download sheets, crude rates are calculated for the total population, males and females. Age-specific rates are calculated for age groups in visualisations and download sheets. Rates reported on the AODstats population pyramid visualisation are age and gender-standardised rates. Crude rates, which can allow for adjustment of population sizes across different areas, however these do not adjust for certain demographic attributes (specifically age and sex). The advantage to using crude rates and age-specific rates are particularly important from a policy perspective, to understand what is influencing the rates. For example, it is important for policy and services to be aware if an area has more men and younger people. However, the use of age/sex-standardised rates in the population pyramids, allows for specific age and gender comparisons across areas to be made more accurately.
- Population estimates: ABS estimated resident population (ERP) on age, sex and statistical local areas is used throughout AODstats based on calendar year of data. For financial year datasets, the earliest year is used (e.g. 2012/13, 2012 ERP is used).
Limitations
There are limitations to using administrative data for purposes other than what it was originally intended when collected. This includes:
- Incomplete or missing data and inadequate coding.
- Some drugs are already in pre-determined drug categories and it is not possible to group them differently or include more specific drug information. In addition, sometimes drug information is not collected and therefore surrogate measures are used. The limitation to this is there will be events that are missed when they should be included and conversely events included when they should not be.
- Location information is dependent upon dataset and the majority of times LGA is the smallest area provided, and sometimes only state based data is available.
- Crude rates are used, which do not allow for certain demographic attributes (age and gender) to be compared accurately across areas, and also rates based on small numbers can produce unstable results. However, we have used age-specific rates for age groups, which does allow for age-specific comparisons. We have also used age and gender-standardised rates in the population pyramid.
