Health

How many drug overdose deaths happen every year in Vermont?

Data updated July 19, 2024
276 overdose deaths in 2022. That means that for every 100,000 people living in Vermont, 43 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,

43

per 100,000 people died of overdoses
In 2022,

276

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, Vermont had a drug overdose death rate higher than the US rate overall, nearly 41% higher. The drug overdose death rate in Vermont increased in 17 of the last 23 years for which data was available. The overdose death rate increased by 73% from 2018 to 2022 and increased 3.0 times from 2013 to 2022.

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

Drug-involved overdose deaths in Vermont, 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 82% of total overdose deaths in Vermont. The rate of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids increased 10.8 times between 2014 and 2022. For cocaine, the rate increased 4.4 times between 2016 and 2022.

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

Drug-involved overdose deaths in Vermont, 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 Vermont ranged from 34 per 100,000 in Chittenden County to 68 per 100,000 in Windham 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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