This is the only jurisdiction were crude rates fell within the 26-year period under investigation. Among females, states with the largest relative increases between 1999 and 2024 are Iowa (+365%), Oregon (+349%) and Minnesota (+289%). There were not sufficient female deaths in 1999 to determine crude rates for Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wyoming.
- Existing shortages of mental health and substance use treatment professionals may make it particularly difficult to access care in rural areas, where the supply of behavioral health workforce is even more scarce.
- We analyzed the steady rise of yearly crude rates for alcohol-related fatalities between 1999 and 2024 and the abrupt rises that occurred starting in 2020 for all demographics.
- Whereas the 2019–2021 relative increases for each gender are comparable, by 2024 crude rates were still significantly higher than in 2019 among females (16.2%) than among males (8.4%).
- Male-to-female ratios in White and Black populations are similar at 3.3 and 3.1 fatalities per 100,000, respectively, in 1999, and at 2.4 and 2.6 fatalities per 100,000, respectively, in 2020.
2.2. Crude rates, yearly data 1999–2024 (gender).
Drug poisoning deaths have been rising for almost three decades, primarily among non-Hispanic Whites (Whites) but also among non-Hispanic Blacks (Blacks) and Hispanics. Declines in these rates occurred among Blacks and Hispanics throughout the 1990s and early 2000s but leveled off during the late 2000s and increased in the 2010s. “ The number of drug overdose deaths involving methamphetamine Alcoholics Anonymous increased 3.6-fold, from 1,887 deaths in 2011 to 6,762 deaths in 2016. “ Nearly one-third of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl also mentioned heroin (32%).
Drug-involved overdose deaths per 100,000 people (
Despite this steady increase, White females maintained lower alcohol-induced mortality rates relative to White males throughout the period. Rates remained constant throughout most of the period among Hispanic females ages 25–44, only increasing slightly in the most recent period, between 2012–2014 and 2015–2017. These mortality trends are consistent with those identified by Kerr and colleagues (2009), who found a significantly lower volume of alcohol consumption among Hispanic and Black relative to White respondents in six U.S. national alcohol surveys conducted between 1979 and 2005. In addition, the CEA assumed that the number of opioid-related overdoses in the US in 2015 was significantly under-reported. According to its report, “However, recent research has found that opioids are underreported on death certificates. Ruhm (2017) estimates that in 2014, opioid-involved overdose deaths were 24 percent higher than officially reported.4 We apply this adjustment to the 2015 data, resulting in an estimated 41,033 overdose deaths involving opioids. We apply this adjustment uniformly over the age distribution of fatalities.”
North Carolina Alcohol Abuse Statistics
- By comparison, South Dakota and Nevada each saw slight increases in 2024 compared to 2023, the report found.
- Rates increased steadily throughout the study period among Black males and females ages 55–64 and then surged in the 2010s.
- In the late 1990s in Maine, West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and Alabama, hydrocodone and oxycodone (non-OxyContin) were prescribed at a rate 2.5–5 times the national average.
- Drugs that are considered “gateway drugs” (that is, substances that are often precursors to abuse of other, possibly more dangerous drugs) or deemed a public health risk may also be listed under Schedule I.
We find that statistically significant TCP jumps arise for both genders and all age groups below 75 years in Spring 2020, concurrent with the onset of COVID-19. As shown in Fig 4, the largest TCP jumps occurred in younger cohorts, with male mortality trends increasing by 28% for ages 15–34 between April and May 2020, and by 26% for ages 35–44 in the same period. Among females, the largest TCP jump was for those aged 35–44 whose mortality trend rose by 28% between April and May 2020. For both genders and all age groups less than 75 years, trends remained abnormally large throughout 2023, despite some groups experiencing downward TCP jumps. For most groups, significant decreases start emerging only in 2024, suggesting long-lasting effects of approximately 4 years.
The rise has been particularly noticeable since the 2000s, with sharp increases throughout the 2010s. These deaths can result from long-term health issues like liver disease or alcohol-related accidents and injuries. The data of how many people die a year from alcohol shows just how dangerous alcohol can be when consumed in harmful amounts, highlighting the need for greater awareness and prevention efforts. Finally, we perform a county-level analysis for a more local view on how alcohol-induced deaths affected various communities. The number of counties in the United States has changed over the 1999–2024 time-frame due to the merging of existing counties and the creation of new ones.
Stress, isolation, and increased alcohol availability led to an unprecedented spike in fatalities. Since 2006 the rate of death among alcohol related incidents has increased among all levels of urbanization. Small/medium sized metropolitan areas also saw a significant rise in alcohol-related deaths from 2006 to 2019. Large metropolitan alcohol overdose areas saw the fewest deaths and the smallest increase in the death rate between the 14 years. “We aim to streamline resources and eliminate redundancies, ensuring that essential mental health and substance use disorder services are delivered more effectively,” the HHS statement said. “I do know that there’s always more we can do in a bipartisan way to curb overdose deaths. Cutting grants to states and laying off thousands of employees isn’t a plan,” she said.
1.4. Crude rates, 2018–2024 monthly trends (age, gender, cause of death).
While opioid overdose rates are lower than the national average, they still account for a significant portion of overdose deaths in Texas. (Washington, DC – July 31, 2024) – TFAH’s Pain in the Nation report series tracks levels of alcohol, drug, and suicide deaths nationally and for population groups. This 2024 edition, reporting on 2022 data, found that a decrease in the alcohol-induced mortality rate led to a slightly lower combined rate of all U.S. deaths due to substance misuse and suicide, but the long-term trend of such fatalities is still alarmingly high. Lin said although the data is encouraging, it’s too soon to say the overdose crisis in the U.S. is over and that public health officials should continue their efforts to drive down overdose death rates. This represents a decline of 26.9% and the lowest figure of annual drug overdose deaths since 2019, according to the report.
Interestingly, between 2019 and 2021 in West Virginia ALD crude rates decreased by 4% among females. In 30 states, the relative increase for ALD crude rates between 2019 and 2021 was higher for females than males. Due to low death counts (less than 10), female crude rates from ALD mortality are unavailable in Delaware, Hawaii, and Rhode Island in 2019 and in the District of Columbia for both 2019 and 2021.