U.S. drug overdose fatalities soar

A record number of Americans died of drug overdoses last year, rising almost 30% to over 90,000 deaths, according to a new CDC report*


Deaths from opioids rose 37% in 12 months, to 69,710, largely fuelled by synthetic opioid painkillers


DRUG OVERDOSE DEATHS (thousands)
Of which opioids

Jump of 29.4% to 93,331 deaths

100						93.3 
80			71.6		72.2
60	53.4	64.9		68.7	51.0	69.7
40	33.7	43.1	48.6	47.7		
20 
0
	2015 	2016 	2017 	2018 	2019 	2020 

      
*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Data is provisional
 

Sources: UPI, CDC
Picture: Christina Victoria Craft (Unsplash)
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