There were an estimated 80,391 overdose deaths in 2024, according to provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – a 27% drop in one year, with about 30,000 fewer deaths than in 2023. Synthetic opioids – primarily fentanyl – continue to be involved in most overdose deaths, the data shows. But those deaths dropped at an even steeper rate, down about 37% between 2023 and 2024. Overall, more than 48,400 overdose deaths – about 60% of all overdose deaths in 2024 – involved synthetic opioids, the new CDC data shows.

Drug deaths plummeted in 2024, according to new federal data. An estimated 80,391 people died of a drug overdose in the U.S. last year, marking the lowest total since 2019. The sum represents a roughly 27% decrease from 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new data reflect a trend that began in late 2023, when overdose deaths finally began to drop after years of steady increase. The years during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular, saw overdose rates skyrocket from an annual plateau of roughly 70,000 per year to an all-time high of nearly 115,000. But it also included swings that prevent new complications: namely, a surge in deaths involving methamphetamine.

There were 30,000 fewer U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024 than the year before — the largest one-year decline ever recorded. An estimated 80,000 people died from overdoses last year, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday. That’s down 27% from the 110,000 in 2023. The CDC has been collecting comparable data for 45 years. The previous largest one-year drop was 4% in 2018, according to the agency’s National Center for Health Statistics. All but two states saw declines last year — with some of the biggest in Ohio, West Virginia and other states that have been hard-hit in the nation's decades-long overdose epidemic.

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There were 30,000 fewer U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024 than the year before — the largest one-year decline ever recorded. An estimated 80,000 people died from an overdose 2024.