Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that overdose deaths declined from 81,313 in 2024 to 69,973 in 2025, representing the continuance of a decline that began in 2022.
However, this decline has not been spread evenly throughout the nation. Between 2024 and 2025, the number of overdose deaths increased in 7 states: Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The number was unchanged in Utah and Nebraska.
Nationwide, the number of overdose deaths decreased by 13.9%. The five states with the largest decreases were Rhode Island (-35.2%), New York (-29.2%), North Carolina (-28.8%), Alabama (-27.7%), and Vermont (-27.3%).
Brandon Marshall, a drug policy researcher at Brown University, told the Associated Press: “I’m cautiously optimistic that this represents really a fundamental change in the arc of the overdose crisis,” adding that “if deaths are going down rapidly, that means they can increase just as rapidly if we take our foot off the gas.”
For reference, the number of overdose deaths peaked at 112,418 during the 12-month period ending in August 2023. With 69,973 overdose deaths in 2025, the last time the number was this low was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic during the 12-month period ending in October 2019, when there were 69,950.
The newly released National Drug Control Strategy, published by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, outlined the Trump administration’s approach to further lower the number of overdose deaths.
Multiple factors likely contributed to the decline in overdose deaths, including increased access to treatment, a greater distribution of naloxone, a changing drug supply, and increased funding for responses from the opioid settlement, among other things.