The majority of U.S. states saw a decrease in overdose deaths, while five states in the western half of the country saw increases. The total number of deaths dipped under 100,000 annually as the CDC reported that 96,801 deaths occurred for the year ending in June, down from 113,154 the prior year.
The cause for the decrease can be attributed to a rise in the availability of opioid overdose reversal drugs such as naloxone as well as a decline in the number of deaths attributed to fentanyl.
“This is the largest recorded reduction in overdose deaths, and the seventh consecutive month of reported decreases in predicted 12-month total numbers of drug overdose deaths,” he said.
Gupta noted that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and at the beginning of the Biden administration, overdose deaths had been increasing 31 percent year-over-year.
“Over the past four years, we have removed decades-long barriers to treatment for millions of Americans, we have made life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone more accessible and affordable across the country, and we have invested historic levels of funding to crack down on the supply of illicit fentanyl at the border,” Gupta said in a statement after the data was released. “The latest data show that our efforts are working, and as a result, there were 16,000 fewer overdose deaths over the last year. Every life saved means one less grieving family and community.”
The states that saw the largest decreases percentage-wise were North Carolina (-30.1 percent; 3,198 total deaths), Ohio (-24.5 percent; 3,938 total deaths), Virginia (-23.3 percent; 1,992 total deaths), South Carolina (-23.2 percent; 1,815 total deaths), and Pennsylvania (-22.8 percent; 4,041 total deaths).
Meanwhile, the five states that saw increases percentage-wise in the number of overdose deaths were Alaska (+38.7 percent; 398 total deaths), Nevada (+26.1 percent; 1,603 total deaths), Oregon (+16.0 percent; 1,882 total deaths), Washington (+6.4 percent; 3,527 total deaths), and Utah (+5.1 percent; 726 total deaths).
The states that had the highest total numbers of overdose deaths were California (-10.2 percent; 11,537 total deaths), Florida (-14.2 percent; 6,697 total deaths), Texas (-2.9 percent; 5,628 total deaths), Pennsylvania (-22.8 percent; 4,041 total deaths), and Ohio (-24.5 percent; 3,938 total deaths).
The states with the lowest total numbers of overdose deaths were South Dakota (-11.1 percent; 80 total deaths), Wyoming (-0.8 percent; 127 total deaths), North Dakota (-10.3 percent; 130 total deaths), Nebraska (-22.8 percent; 149 total deaths), and Montana (-7.5 percent; 172 total deaths).
The CDC defines provisional drug overdose death counts as death records that are received and processed by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) as of a specified cutoff date from state vital registration offices through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program.
The agency noted that data for all states are “underreported due to incomplete data.” The timeliness of provisional mortality surveillance data in the National Vital Statistics System database varies by cause of death, according to the agency.
The lag time—i.e., the time between when the death occurred and when the data are available for analysis—is longer for drug overdose deaths compared with other causes of death and provisional estimates of drug overdose deaths have traditionally been reported 6 months after the date of death.
The agency said recent improvements in data timeliness have shortened the 6-month lag to 4 months.
