--- title: Drug Overdose Death Rates In The U.S. Are Rising Everywhere, CDC Says description: U.S. drug overdose death rates continue to rise, the CDC says. More than 63,600 people died of a drug overdose in 2016. canonical: https://time.com/5220372/drug-overdose-deaths-cdc/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-29T17:00:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:49:10.998Z article:section: Health og:title: Drug Overdose Death Rates In The U.S. Are Rising Everywhere og:description: More than 63,600 people died of an overdose in 2016 og:url: https://time.com/5220372/drug-overdose-deaths-cdc/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Drug Overdose Death Rates In The U.S. Are Rising Everywhere twitter:description: More than 63,600 people died of an overdose in 2016 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Drug Overdose Death Rates in the U.S. Are Rising Everywhere, CDC Says > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 29, 2018 5:00 PM UTC  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 29, 2018 5:00 PM UTC Drug overdose deaths are on the rise across all genders, demographics and geographic areas, according to a new CDC report. A total of 63,632 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2016 — a 21.5% increase over the 2015 total, according to the report. The researchers attribute this sharp uptick in deaths to the fatalities involving potent synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, which doubled in 2016. The report drew on data from 31 states, plus Washington, D.C. Of these, 21 saw increases in synthetic opioid overdose deaths, and 10 saw those rates double. New Hampshire, West Virginia and Massachusetts were particularly hard-hit by synthetic opioids, the report says. From 2015-2016, deaths related to cocaine, psychostimulants, heroin and prescription opioids rose by 52.4%, 33.3%, 19.5% and 10.6%, respectively. But the report notes that these drugs are often laced with fentanyl as well, which likely contributes to skyrocketing casualty rates. While nearly every demographic experienced an increase in drug overdose death rates, the report says men between ages 25 and 44 saw the most drastic increase. Substance abuse, [particularly related to opioids](http://time.com/5170231/the-opioid-diaries/), has become one of the most pressing public health issues in the U.S., leading President Donald Trump to [declare it a public health emergency](http://time.com/4998565/trump-declares-opioid-crisis-emergency/) in October. Drug overdose deaths have even [chipped away at the U.S. lifespan](http://time.com/4947004/opioid-overdoses-life-expectancy/), according to September report. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5220372/drug-overdose-deaths-cdc/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5220372/drug-overdose-deaths-cdc/"},"headline":"Drug Overdose Death Rates in the U.S. Are Rising Everywhere, CDC Says","datePublished":"2018-03-29T17:00:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:49:10.998Z","description":"More than 63,600 died of an overdose in 2016","url":"https://time.com/5220372/drug-overdose-deaths-cdc/","keywords":["Public Health","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5220372/drug-overdose-deaths-cdc/","name":"Drug Overdose Death Rates in the U.S. Are Rising Everywhere, CDC Says"}}]}] ```