How many drug overdose deaths happen every year in Minnesota?
Data updated July 19, 2024
1,384 overdose deaths in 2022. That means for every 100,000 people in Minnesota, 24 died of drug overdose. This was the highest the drug overdose death rate had been in the state since data from 1999 became available.
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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, Minnesota had a drug overdose death rate lower than the US rate overall, nearly 24% lower. The drug overdose death rate in Minnesota increased in 17 of the last 23 years in which data was available. The overdose death rate increased 2.2 times since 2018 and 2.6 times since 2013.
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 approximately 69% of total overdose deaths in Minnesota. The rates of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl increased 34.6 times between 2006 and 2022, while those involving methamphetamine increased 18.8 times between 2011 and 2022.
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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 Minnesota ranged from 11 per 100,000 in Washington County to 71 per 100,000 in Beltrami 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.
