Health

How many drug overdose deaths happen every year in Alabama?

Data updated July 19, 2024
1,492 overdose deaths in 2022. That means that for every 100,000 people living in Alabama, 29 died of drug overdose. This was the highest the drug overdose death rate had been in the state since data from 1999 became available.
Showing data for
In 2022,

29

per 100,000 people died of overdoses
In 2022,

1.5K

people died of overdoses
Unadjusted data about the nation is a useful starting point, but age-adjusted data tells a more complete story. Age-adjusting accounts for differences in age distributions across populations, which is crucial when comparing health outcomes since age is a major risk factor for many conditions. This adjustment enables fairer comparisons of mortality rates between different groups or over time. The rest of the data on this page is age-adjusted.
In 2022, Alabama had a drug overdose death rate 3% lower than the US rate overall. The drug overdose death rate in Alabama increased in 16 of the last 23 years for which data is available. The overdose death rate has increased 90% since 2018 and increased 2.5 times since 2013.

In 2022, Alabama had a drug overdose death rate lower than the US rate.

Drug-involved overdose deaths in Alabama, age-adjusted rate per 100,000 people

The rise in drug overdose deaths nationally has been due to growing use of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, however, this may vary by state. In 2022, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were involved in more overdose deaths than any other drug, making up 66% of total overdose deaths in Alabama. The rates of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl increased 42.2 times between 2006 and 2022. For methamphetamine, the rates increased 26.0 times between 2010 and 2022.

In 2022, fentanyl was involved in more overdose deaths than any other drug.

Drug-involved overdose deaths in Alabama, age-adjusted rate per 100,000 people

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Although drug overdose deaths are on the rise, they affect geographic areas differently. In 2022, the death rate for overdoses in Alabama ranged from 12 per 100,000 in Lee County to 70 per 100,000 in Walker County.
Occasionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will mark data as either suppressed or unreliable. Suppression occurs when data does not meet confidentiality requirements. As a result, data may not be available for every county in this state. Age-adjusted data is also not available at the county level. County-level tables reflect the most recent year of available data.

Drug-involved overdose deaths per 100,000 people (2022)

Drug-involved overdose deaths per 100,000 people (2022)

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