Drug-Induced causes, predominately from overdoses, accounted for 96,096 deaths in the United States in 2020. That's more than double the number of deaths from all gunfire-related causes that year. Relative to the size of the population, in 2020 the U.S. recorded a drug-induced death rate of 29.2 deaths per 100,000 population.  By comparison, in the prior year, there were 74,511 drug-induced deaths in the U.S., a figure that translated to 22.7 such deaths per 100,000 population. The drug-induced death rate in 2020 varied widely by region, with the deadliest region of the country, New England, having a drug-induced death rate that was 79% higher than the least deadly region, the Southwest.  A deeper examination of data from the National Center for Health Statistics yields the following details about regional drug-induced death rates in the U.S.  Follow the "region" links in the table below to see state-level data within each region:

Regional Drug-Induced Death Rates in the U.S.

Region	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Far West	13,697	56,579,620	24.2
Great Lakes	15,891	46,834,910	33.9
Great Plains	4,542	21,481,834	21.1
Mid-Eastern	17,064	48,757,828	35.0
New England	5,405	14,847,468	36.4
Rocky Mountain	2,765	12,547,416	22.0
Southeastern	28,036	85,565,785	32.8
Southwestern	8,696	42,869,262	20.3
U.S.	96,096	329,484,123	29.2

(*) number of drug-induced deaths 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.