The Fact
In 2024, the age-adjusted drug-overdose death rate was 32.2 per 100,000 for males and 14.1 per 100,000 for females. Both rates fell sharply from 2023, but the male rate remained more than twice the female rate.
What This Means
Men carry a much larger share of fatal overdose mortality. That makes substance-related death another population-level signal that men's health and social conditions are not simply fine in the background while other groups receive attention.
Sources
- National Center for Health Statistics, Data Brief 549, Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2014–2024.