Newly released provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that fatal drug overdoses fell in 2025, marking three consecutive years of declines.
By December 2025, the number of reported drug overdose deaths in the U.S. fell by 14 percent to 68,632 deaths, according to provisional data. The predicted number of deaths, 69,973, is higher than the current reported amount as the initial figure is assumed to underrepresent the true count. About 0.3 percent of the deaths are part of pending investigations.
In December of 2024, the 12-month reported death count was 80,860.
“Drug overdose deaths are often initially reported with no cause of death (pending investigation), because they require lengthy investigation, including toxicology testing,” the CDC’s report noted. “Reported provisional counts may not include all deaths that occurred during a given time period. Therefore, they should not be considered comparable with final data and are subject to change.”
Overdoses caused by all classes or types of drugs generally declined across the board. Overdose deaths linked to methadone slightly overtook fatal heroin overdoses, though this was largely due to a significant decline in deaths linked to the latter in recent years.
Opioids remained the top cause of overdose deaths last year.
Last year, the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) nonprofit attributed the drop in overdose deaths to municipalities utilizing harm reduction principles.
“They’re doing treatment first. They’re lowering barriers to getting help,” wrote the DPA. “The expansion of naloxone distribution at the community level has exploded and is very likely one of the key drivers of why overdose deaths are declining. Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) like methadone and buprenorphine cut overdose risk by half.”
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