Table 1

Annual counts of fatal overdoses and non-fatal overdose-involved emergency department visits and the ratio of fatal to non-fatal overdoses, by drug type, 2010‒2020*, USA

YearAll drug overdoseAll opioid-involved overdoseSynthetic opioid-involved overdose†Heroin-involved overdoseStimulant-involved overdoseOpioid and stimulant polysubstance overdose
FatalNon-fatalRatioFatalNon-fatalRatioFatalNon-fatalRatioFatalNon-fatalRatioFatalNon-fatalRatioFatalNon-fatalRatio
201038 329780 9810.0521 089133 5010.163007303622 3000.14591444 0150.13266250290.53
201141 340794 9410.0522 784145 7520.162666439729 0540.15676558 3580.12325580610.40
201241 502797 2840.0523 166153 1650.152628592540 2230.15687959 1950.12334083040.40
201343 982775 0460.0625 052158 6230.163105825749 8100.17833859 1060.14403793680.43
201447 055803 5820.0628 647180 2990.16554410 57471 0140.15939559 9060.16499910 5280.47
2015* 52 404888 9260.0633 091220 6590.15958012 98998 2640.1312 12264 1000.19659411 5960.57
201663 632915 7460.0742 249289 6850.1519 41317 6101.1015 469145 6730.1117 25866 6280.2610 22212 9940.79
201770 237961 3950.0747 600301 6430.1628 46619 5061.4615 482152 6990.1023 13981 8600.2814 45515 5640.93
201867 367902 8180.0746 802270 8730.1731 33520 2211.5514 996136 1010.1125 87778 4130.3316 16513 8461.17
201970 630895 8050.0849 860269 9860.1836 35923 3501.5614 019123 5610.1130 23182 2570.3719 19213 6991.40
202091 799926 3260.1068 630295 6490.2356 51633 6701.6813 165115 7200.1140 64386 8980.4727 96614 7531.90
2010–2020628 2779 442 8500.07408 9702 419 8350.17198 619114 357‡1.50§118 309984 4190.12186 561740 7360.25112 887123 7420.91
  • *Beginning 1 October 2015 (corresponding with the start of Quarter 4 (Q4) 2015), coding for emergency department data transitioned from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM which may impact the comparison of counts of non-fatal overdoses before and after this time period.

  • †Coding of non-fatal overdoses changed from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM beginning 1 October 2015. Prior to this coding change, there were no diagnosis codes specific for synthetic opioids available for non-fatal data.

  • ‡For non-fatal synthetic opioid-involved overdoses, this value represents the total number of overdoses from 2016 to 2020.

  • §This value represents the ratio of fatal to non-fatal synthetic opioid-involved overdoses from 2016 to 2020 (fatal=172 089; non-fatal=114 357; ratio of fatal to non-fatal=1.50).

  • ICD-9-CM, International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification; ICD-10-CM, International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification.