Alcohol misuse leads to fewer hospital stays in Germany. In 2024, about 283,500 patients were treated in hospitals for diagnoses caused solely by alcohol, a 28.9 % drop compared with a decade earlier, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Wednesday. In 2014, 398,500 people were admitted for alcohol‑induced diagnoses, marking 2024 as the lowest level in ten years. The share of such cases among all hospital treatments fell from 2.0 % in 2014 to 1.6 % in 2024. During the same period, total hospital treatments declined by 8.6 % to 17.9 million cases.
Males made up a larger proportion of admissions for alcohol‑induced diagnoses: 207,900, or 73.3 %, of the 2024 cases were men, while women accounted for 26.7 %. Alcohol dependence was the most common cause of a purely alcohol‑related hospital stay in 2024, representing 42.5 % (120,400 cases). Acute intoxication accounted for 21.1 % (59,700 cases), withdrawal syndromes 14.7 % (41,800 cases). Other frequent diagnoses involved alcohol‑related gastrointestinal diseases such as liver damage (13.0 %, 36,900 cases) and pancreatic disease (5.2 %, 14,700 cases).
Destatis noted that the number of alcohol‑induced hospital treatments has decreased in nearly all age groups. The steepest decline occurred in the 10‑ to 19‑year‑old bracket, where admissions fell 58.5 % from 24,300 in 2014 to 10,100 in 2024. This is mainly due to fewer young people being hospitalized for acute alcohol poisoning, which dropped 60.8 % from 22,400 in 2014 to 8,800 in 2024.
Hospitalizations for people aged 20‑39 and 40‑59 also fell sharply-by 27.6 % (66,400 cases) and 35.2 % (138,200 cases), respectively. The decline was weakest in the 60‑to‑79 age group, with a 1.4 % reduction (65,500 cases). In contrast, the 80‑plus group saw a 22.4 % increase, reaching 3,300 cases.
In 2024, the Federal Statistical Office reported about 14,400 deaths from diseases directly attributable to alcohol consumption, a rise of 2.1 % above the 2014 figure of 14,100. Nearly three‑quarters (74.1 %) of these deaths were male. Among men who died from alcohol‑related conditions, 50.9 % were aged 55‑69, and only 0.5 % were younger than 30.
The overall rise in alcohol‑related deaths is largely demographic. When adjusted for population structure, the age‑standardised mortality rate for alcohol causes fell 3.4 % from 17.8 per 100,000 residents in 2014 to 17.2 per 100,000 in 2024.
