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Substance Use Treatment Demand Calculator

Work out substance use treatment demand instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Substance Use Treatment Demand Calculator

Applies prevalence and treatment-seeking rates to the population and converts the resulting demand into the number of services needed.

Formula

Treatment demand

Demand = population x prevalence x annual treatment-seeking share; services = demand / places per service

Worked example

With the default values below, Substance Use Treatment Demand Calculator returns People seeking treatment each year of 3,000. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Population servedaccepts 1–100,000,000
500,000
Prevalence of substance use disorderaccepts 0.1–20
3
Share seeking treatment each yearaccepts 1–100
20
Treatment places per service per yearaccepts 10–5,000
300

Results

People seeking treatment each year
3,000
People with a substance use disorder
15,000
Services required
10.00
Demand per 100,000 population
600.0

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Treatment demand
  3. 3People seeking treatment each year= 3,000
  4. 4People with a substance use disorder= 15,000
  5. 5Services required= 10.00
  6. 6Demand per 100,000 population= 600.0

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or fees or charges into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is treatment seeking so low?

Stigma, criminalisation, cost and low perceived need all suppress help seeking, so measured demand understates need.

Does capacity equal places?

Only if retention is good; high dropout means more people cycle through the same places each year.

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