Over 96,000 drug-induced deaths were recorded in the United States in 2020.  More than 95% of those fatalities stemmed from drug overdoses. Nationally, in 2020 there were approximately 29.2 drug-induced deaths per 100,000 population.  By comparison, in 2019 the U.S. recorded about 74,500 drug-related deaths and had a drug-induced death rate of 22.7 per 100,000 population.  The year-to-year deterioration in U.S. drug-induced death statistics was a continuation of a negative trend that goes back at least twenty years.  In 2020 the Mid-Eastern U.S., a region that includes five states and the District of Columbia, recorded nearly 17,100 drug-induced deaths, giving the region a collective drug-induced death rate of 35.0 such deaths per 100,000 population.  The region's collective drug-induced death rate was about 19.9% above the national average in 2020 as the District of Columbia and four states in the region recorded drug-induced death rates that were higher than the national average.  New York was the only state in the region with a drug-induced death rate lower than the national average in 2020.  Further examination of data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics reveals the following details about drug-induced death rates in the Mid-Eastern U.S.:

Drug-Induced Death Rates in the Mid-Eastern U.S

State	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Delaware	448	986,809	45.4
District of Columbia	432	712,816	60.6
Maryland	2,814	6,055,802	46.5
New Jersey	2,921	8,882,371	32.9
New York	5,165	19,336,776	26.7
Pennsylvania	5,284	12,783,254	41.3
Region	17,064	48,757,828	35.0
U.S. Totals	96,096	329,484,123	29.2

(*) number of drug-induced deaths (intentional and unintentional) per 100,000 population

Report Period: 2020

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2020, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on October 22, 2022