Drug Overdose and Alcohol Deaths Down Nationally

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Deaths due to drug overdose and alcohol misuse were down in the United States in 2023 and 2024, according to a report from Trust for America’s Health (TFAH).

The data predict an unprecedented 27% one-year drop in overdose deaths, according to a TFAH press release.

“The improvements are encouraging and are likely related to a number of factors including investments in primary prevention, mental health, harm reduction, and overdose prevention programs,” the report states.

Let’s dig deeper into the 2025 Pain in the Nation: The Epidemics of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths report and how it impacts others.

The Decline of Drug and Alcohol Death Rates

While there was an increase in drug overdoses from 2020-2022, there was an overall 4% decrease in mortality rates as of 2023.

According to public health experts, improved data systems that allow for real-time tracking of substance use and its impacts, as well as the expansion of overdose prevention strategies, played a significant role in bringing down mortality rates.

While this is an improvement overall, some population groups or regions of the country didn’t see declines.

“Other population groups had nonsignificant changes or increases,” according to TFAH.

Just as with drug overdose mortality, the overall age-adjusted alcohol-induced mortality rate decreased by 7% from 2022 to 2023 (from 13.5 to 12.6 deaths per 100,000 people).

“This decrease built on a 6 percent reduction the year prior and crossed nearly all demographic and geographic groups, but such deaths still disproportionately impact some groups,” according to TFAH.

Additionally, the U.S. overall suicide mortality rate remained unchanged and identical from 2022 to 2023.

“The public health community is united in its concern that progress will be lost due to cutbacks in federal investment in health promotion, crisis intervention, and overdose prevention programs,” according to the report.

Latinos and Substance Use

Anyone can suffer from substance use.

In 2023, around 8.2 million (15.7%) Latino Americans aged 12 or older suffered from a substance use disorder in the past year, according to the American Addiction Centers.

9.2% Latinos aged 12 or older had a past-year alcohol use disorder and 8.8% Hispanic or Latino Americans aged 12 or older had a past-year drug use disorder.

An article from The University of Texas at San Antonio College for Health Community and Policy reported that the Latino community faces several issues that can impact access to treatment, such as:

• higher rates of unemployment
• less likelihood of having insurance
• less access to internet
• longer travel times to substance use disorder (SUD) service locations

Additionally, even when treatment is accessible, Latinos could ultimately face obstacles like less successful treatment outcomes and lower satisfaction with treatment, according to the article.

Recommendations Moving Forward for Harm Reduction

The TFAH report recommends several actions for prevention and harm reduction, including:

• Protect and bolster investment in public health and behavioral health systems and injury and violence prevention programs to improve mental health and well-being for all Americans.
• Continue to improve programs, like CDC’s Overdose Data to Action, to track emerging trends by geographic, demographic, and drug type metrics to guide local, state, and national responses and to prevent overdoses and deaths in real time.
• Focus on underlying drivers of substance use disorder through early intervention and prevention policies including expanding resiliency and substance use prevention programs in schools and increasing access to community and mental health services for children and families.
• Maximize harm reduction strategies and substance use disorder treatments to reduce overdose risk, and support efforts to limit access to lethal means of suicide.
• Bolster the continuum of crisis intervention programs and expand the mental health and substance use treatment workforce. Build community capacity to ensure access to mental health and substance use treatment for anyone needing such services.

“Trust for America’s Health calls for a sustained commitment to primary prevention and to the workforce, programs, and systems that enable communities to reduce alcohol-induced, drug, and suicide deaths and improve mental health and well-being,” according to TFAH.

How Can You Help People in Your Community?

Substance use just one factor that contributes to health.

How is the state of health in your community?

Find out by downloading a Salud America! Health Report Card for your town!

Enter your county name and get auto-generated local data with interactive maps and comparative gauges on several health indicators. This can help you visualize and explore local issues in education, housing, transportation, food, health, and more.

See how your county stacks up compared to the rest of your state and nation.

Then email the Report Card to local leaders to raise awareness, include the data in a presentation or grant proposal, or share it on social media to drive healthy change in your community!

GET YOUR HEALTH REPORT CARD!