Experts cite a variety of factors for why the number of overdose deaths will drop to nearly 70,000 by 2025, a 14% drop from the previous year.
Published May 13, 2026
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released data showing that drug overdose deaths will decrease by nearly 14% in 2025, continuing the decline for the third consecutive year.
Nearly 70,000 overdose deaths are expected in the United States in 2025, down from more than 81,000 in 2024, according to data released Wednesday.
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This downward trend has been welcomed in the United States, which has suffered a devastating overdose crisis caused primarily by synthetic opioids.
Overdose deaths peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 110,000 in 2022, but have soared, linked to social isolation and barriers to accessing treatment services.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that this represents a really fundamental shift in the arc of the overdose crisis,” Brandon Marshall, a researcher at Brown University who studies overdose trends, told The Associated Press.
Experts attribute the decline to a variety of factors, including increased availability of the overdose drug naloxone, commonly sold under the brand name Narcan.
Test strips that can detect fentanyl are also now more common, with regulatory changes in China restricting access to the chemicals used to make fentanyl.
In 2025, overdose deaths decreased in most U.S. states, but seven states saw an increase. Overdose deaths increased by more than 10 percent in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.
But President Donald Trump’s administration has pointed to the overall decline as a result of crackdowns on drug trafficking. The White House said in a statement earlier this month that drug overdoses remain one of the country’s “most pressing public health challenges.”
The theme was revisited Wednesday by Kash Patel, President Trump’s pick to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
In a social media post, Patel claimed that the agency had seized enough fentanyl to kill more than 200 million Americans in 2025 and 2026. The total represents more than half of the country’s population.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi previously said that during President Trump’s first 100 days in office, the government saved 119 million lives through drug seizures. Bondi later raised his estimate to 258 million lives. Experts have widely condemned these claims as exaggerated.
The Trump administration has cut government programs aimed at preventing overdoses, drawing criticism from activists.
Last month, for example, the government announced it would no longer pay for test strips that help drug users confirm that their illegal drugs are not contaminated with fentanyl.
