Drug overdose rates among all ethnic groups and both men and women rose significantly from 2019 to 2020, as well as from 2015 to 2020. In 2020, synthetic opioids and pandemic stressors played a big part.
92,000
Number of Americans who died of drug overdoses in 2020—a 30% increase from 2019 and a 75% increase from 2015. Three quarters of fatal overdoses in 2020 were from opioids, with more than 60% from synthetic opioids including fentanyl. The number of overdose deaths in 2020 is by far the highest annual total on record.
54.1
Number of fatal drug overdoses for every 100,000 Black men in the United States in 2020. That compares with 52.1/100,000 overdose deaths among American Indian or Alaska Native men, 44.2/100,000 among White men, and 27.3/100,000 among Hispanic men. The lowest overdose death rate was among Asian or Pacific Islander men (8.5/100,000).
213%
Increase in the death rate of Black men from drug overdoses, from 2015 to 2020. Before 2015, Black men were considerably less likely than both White men and American Indian or Alaska Native men to die from drug overdoses. Since then, the death rate among Black men has more than tripled.
144%
Increase in overdose fatality rate among Black women in 2020, with a rate of 18.8/100,000—more than twice the rate in 2015. Despite that increase, American Indian or Alaska Native women continue to have the highest overdose rate among women: 32/100,000 in 2020, about double the number from 2015.
