5.1 Tables C1, C2 and C3 provide figures for individual Council areas. Again, because of the relatively small numbers involved, particularly for some areas, great care should be taken when using these figures; again, the points mentioned in sections 2 and 3.3 may have a proportionately greater effect on the numbers for some of the smaller areas.
5.2 As the numbers of drug-related death for smaller areas (such as postal districts) will be lower, and may be subject to proportionately larger year-to-year fluctuations, it is unlikely that much useful information could be obtained from looking at the figures for small areas for a single year, or for a few years taken together. There could also be concerns about the sensitivity of data relating to small areas, as it might be possible, in some circumstances, to infer something about identifiable individuals from such data. Therefore, one should only look at such figures for several years taken together.
5.3 An analysis for the National Forum on Drug-related Deaths used data for postal districts for the eight years from 2000 to 2007 (inclusive). In that period, there were 2,893 drug-related deaths in Scotland (on the basis of the standard definition). Of the postal districts, "G21" had the largest number (67 - an average of 8.4 per year). Four other postal districts had totals of 50 or more drug-related deaths for that period: "G33" (54); "G20" (53); "G32" (51); and "AB24" (50). There were 25 postal districts which each had 29 or more drug-related deaths over the eight years: each of them accounted for more than 1% of the total for Scotland for that period. Taken together, these 25 postal districts accounted for about a third of all drug-related deaths in Scotland between 2000 and 2007.
5.4 The remaining two-thirds of drug-related deaths in that period were deaths of residents of postal districts which had, at most, 28 such deaths over the eight years - i.e. areas which had, on average, at most 3½ drug-related deaths per year (many averaged fewer than one drug-related death per year). It follows that, while some postal districts have markedly more drug-related deaths than others, the problem is clearly a very widespread one, with most deaths being of people who had been living in areas which had relatively few drug-related deaths.