Health

How many drug overdose deaths happen every year in Massachusetts?

Data updated July 19, 2024
2,642 overdose deaths in 2022. That means that for every 100,000 people living in Massachusetts, 38 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,

38

per 100,000 people died of overdoses
In 2022,

2.6K

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, Massachusetts had a drug overdose death rate higher than the US rate overall, nearly 15% higher. The drug overdose death rate in Massachusetts increased in 15 of the last 23 years for which data was available. The overdose death rate increased by 14% from 2018 to 2022 and increased 2.3 times from 2013 to 2022.

In 2022, Massachusetts had a drug overdose death rate higher than the US rate.

Drug-involved overdose deaths in Massachusetts, 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, accounting for 84% of total overdose deaths in Massachusetts. The rates of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids increased 106 times between 2002 and 2022. For cocaine, the overdose death rate increased 7.9 times between 1999 and 2022.

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

Drug-involved overdose deaths in Massachusetts, 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 Massachusetts ranged from 25 per 100,000 in Norfolk County to 55 per 100,000 in Hampden 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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