Overdose Deaths in the United States
The CDC tracks the number of people who have died from drug overdoses in the United States. These charts automatically update when new data is available.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigates and maintains a record of deaths in America and their causes, including tracking the number of people who die from drug overdoses.
Although the CDC is the definitive source for these statistics, we typically don't learn death counts until after more than a year has passed. This is because (1) it can take awhile to determine and verify the underlying cause of death for an individual, and (2) the CDC aggregates data based on death certificates, which are managed by the states, and some states are slow at reporting.
In January 2025, just 5 days before inauguration, the CDC's National Vital Statistics System began publishing provisional data on overdose deaths with a shortened lag of approximately 5 months. The provisional data is known to have some gaps, and it's published as a moving average where every month's count includes the total number of overdose deaths from the previous 12-month period.
The following data-based visuals are based on the provisionally published data and automatically update within hours of updates from the CDC.
Total Overdose Deaths
Overall, the number of people dying from drug overdoses in America has been a rollercoaster over the past decade. The annual number of deaths caused by overdoses rose substantially in mid-2020 and peaked during the period between July 2022 and June 2023, but since then it has fallen. The reasons behind the decline aren't fully clear yet, but scientists have suggested that expanded treatment, prevention efforts, and declining potency may all be factors.
Overdose Deaths by State
Individual states have unique challenges in battling overdoses. The Appalachian states were hit particularly early and hard by the opioid crisis, but western states have since caught up.
Compared to ,
Drugs Involved in Overdose Deaths
The relative involvements of prescription opioids and heroin in overdose deaths have steadily declined, pushed out by the rise of deaths caused by synthetic opioids and psychostimulants. These numbers don't add up to 100%, because it's now common for multiple drugs to be involved in an overdose death (e.g., fentanyl plus a stimulant like methamphetamine).