How many drug overdose deaths happen every year in North Dakota?
Data updated July 19, 2024
148 overdose deaths in 2022. For every 100,000 people in North Dakota, 19 died of drug overdose. This was the highest the drug overdose death rate had been in the state since data from 2003 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, North Dakota had a drug overdose death rate lower than the US rate overall, nearly 39% lower. The drug overdose death rate in North Dakota increased in 9 of the last 13 years for which data is available. The overdose death rate has increased by 94% since 2018. It has increased 7.1 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, accounting for 58% of total overdose deaths in North Dakota. The rates of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids and methamphetamine increased 2.8 and 1.9 times, respectively, between 2020 and 2022 and between 2017 and 2022.
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Although drug overdose deaths were on the rise, they affect geographic areas differently. In 2022, the death rate for overdoses in North Dakota was 19 per 100,000 in Cass 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.
