Drug Deaths - Women in United States

United States

Drug overdose deaths have risen in the United States over the past two decades, becoming a leading cause of injury death. Between 1999 and 2023, the drug death rate rose more than 500%. However, the drug death rate decreased between 2022 and 2024, and provisional 2025 data suggest this trend is continuing. In 2024, more than 24,000 females of all ages nationwide died of a drug overdose.

Though these statistics reflect all drug deaths, opioids — fentanyl in particular — are the most significant contributor. More than 69% of drug deaths in 2023 involved an opioid. Overdose deaths caused by using multiple illicit substances simultaneously have also been on the rise, and often involve opioids. Other drugs that contribute to drug deaths in the U.S. include stimulants like cocaine and tranquilizers such as benzodiazepines. 

The effects of substance misuse contribute to public health problems like neonatal abstinence syndrome, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. Fatal drug overdoses and drug misuse incur major costs across health care, criminal justice and lost productivity, with fatal opioid overdoses and opioid use disorder costing the U.S. an estimated $1.02 trillion in 2017.

According to America’s Health Rankings analysis, the drug death rate is highest among:

• Women ages 35-44 compared with those ages 20-34. 
• American Indian/Alaska Native women, who have a prevalence more than 20 times higher than Asian women.

Additional research has identified that drug deaths are higher among women with a high school education compared with those who are college graduates. 

In 2019, 5.5 million children lived with a parent who used opioids and about 720,000 children lived with a parent diagnosed with opioid use disorder in the past year.

Evidence-based overdose prevention strategies combine public health surveillance, health care prescribing guidelines and public safety interventions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has compiled prevention strategies, including:

• Supporting surveillance and funding research on strategies to prevent opioid-related harms.
• Building state, local and tribal capacity to coordinate prescription drug monitoring programs and respond to drug overdose outbreaks.
• Supporting providers, health systems and payers in efforts to improve opioid prescribing for pain management, including use of the CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain. 
• Improving public safety by supporting law enforcement strategies to reduce the illicit opioid supply and expand distribution and timely use of naloxone (an antidote to reverse an opioid overdose). 
• Empowering consumers to make safe choices by increasing awareness of the potential harms associated with prescription opioid misuse through the Rx Awareness Campaign. 
• Increasing access to medication-assisted treatment, such as buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has published an opioid overdose prevention toolkit for providers, communities, local governments and consumers. The National Institute on Drug Abuse provides clinical guidance, evidence-based research and resources regarding substance misuse prevention and treatment. 

The Office on Women’s Health published a toolkit to help health care professionals and social services organization leaders improve care coordination for women with opioid use disorder. For pregnant women, accessing proper treatment for opioid use disorder may be challenging, as some providers will not treat pregnant patients.

Reducing drug overdose deaths is a Healthy People 2030 leading health indicator. Additional drug-related objectives include:

• Increasing abstinence from illicit drugs among pregnant women.
• Reducing the proportion of women who use illicit opioids during pregnancy.
• Reducing the proportion of adolescents who used drugs in the past month.

American Society of Addiction Medicine. Public Policy Statement on Substance Use, Misuse, and Use Disorders During and Following Pregnancy, with an Emphasis on Opioids. North Bethesda, MD: American Society of Addiction Medicine, January 18, 2017. https://www.ncdhhs.gov/asam-substance-use-misuse-and-use-disorders-during-and/open.

Carroll, Jennifer J., Traci C. Green, and Rita K. Noonan. Evidence-Based Strategies for Preventing Opioid Overdose: What’s Working in the United States. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018. https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/media/pdfs/2018-evidence-based-strategies.pdf.

Dowell, Deborah, Kathleen R. Ragan, Christopher M. Jones, Grant T. Baldwin, and Roger Chou. “CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain — United States, 2022.” MMWR. Recommendations and Reports 71, no. 3 (November 4, 2022): 1–95. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.rr7103a1.

Drug Enforcement Administration. 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment. U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, May 2025. https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/2025NationalDrugThreatAssessment.pdf.

Florence, Curtis, Feijun Luo, and Ketra Rice. “The Economic Burden of Opioid Use Disorder and Fatal Opioid Overdose in the United States, 2017.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 218 (January 2021): 108350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108350.

Garnett, Matthew F., and Arialdi M. Miniño. Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2003–2023. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.), December 19, 2024. https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc/170565.

Garnett, Matthew, and Arialdi Miniño. Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2023–2024. National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.), January 29, 2026. https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc/174639.

Ghertner, Robin. U.S. National and State Estimates of Children Living with Parents Using Substances, 2015–2019. Washington, D.C: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 2022. https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/f34eb24c1aff645bed0a6e978c0b4d16/children-at-risk-of-sud.pdf.

Patrick, Stephen W., Melinda B. Buntin, Peter R. Martin, Theresa A. Scott, William Dupont, Michael Richards, and William O. Cooper. “Barriers to Accessing Treatment for Pregnant Women with Opioid Use Disorder in Appalachian States.” Substance Abuse 40, no. 3 (October 9, 2018): 356–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/08897077.2018.1488336.

Phillippi, Julia C., Rebecca Schulte, Kemberlee Bonnet, Peter R. Martin, Katy B. Kozhimannil, Stephen W. Patrick, William O. Cooper, and David D. Schlundt. “Reproductive-Age Women’s Experience of Accessing Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder: ‘We Don’t Do That Here.’” Women’s Health Issues, June 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.whi.2021.03.010.

Powell, David. “Educational Attainment and US Drug Overdose Deaths.” JAMA Health Forum 4, no. 10 (October 6, 2023): e233274. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2023.3274.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. SAMHSA Overdose Prevention and Response Toolkit. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, 2025. https://library.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/overdose-prevention-response-kit-pep23-03-00-001.pdf.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Caring for Women with Opioid Use Disorder: A Toolkit for Organization Leaders and Providers. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Office of Women’s Health, November 2020. https://www.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/hrsa/owh/caring-women-opioid-disorder.pdf.