Homeless deaths in Scotland up by 11% in 2019

The number of people who died while homeless rose to more than 200 in 2019, according to new figures.

Experimental statistics published by National Records of Scotland (NRS) estimate that 216 people died that year, an increase of 11% on the estimate of 195 in 2018.

The average age at death in 2019 was 43 years old for men and 39 for women and more than half of homeless deaths (54%) were drug-related.

Almost threequarters (73%) of deaths among people experiencing homelessness were male (157) and 27% were female (59).

Scotland had the highest homeless death rate when compared to England and Wales in 2019 with a rate of 52.2 per million population aged 15-74 compared to 18 in England and 14.3 in Wales.

Julie Ramsay, NRS head of vital events, said: “Given the importance of having information on the number of homeless deaths in Scotland, we worked with the Office for National Statistics to develop this methodology to provide estimates.

“While these statistics help our understanding of this issue, it’s important to understand these figures are currently experimental and the methodology is under development.

“These estimates do provide context and show that homeless deaths have increased for the second consecutive year, with an 11% increase on the estimate in 2018.”

In 2019 the local authorities with the highest homeless death rates per million population aged 15-74 were Inverclyde (213.2), South Ayrshire (120.3) and North Ayrshire (111.8).