Setting records

In 2017 we set records in the number of deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide since the collection of this type of federal mortality data started in 1999. This is based on data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

These causes killed more than twice as many as they did in 1999. More than 150,000 Americans died from alcohol and drug-induced fatalities and suicide in 2017. Nearly a third — 47,173 — were suicides. 

Twenty years ago, less than 1,000 deaths a year were attributed to fentanyl and synthetic opioids. In 2017, more than 1,000 Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses every two weeks, topping 28,000 for the year. Suicides by gun increased 22 percent over the last decade. Guns were used in nearly half of the nation’s 47,173 suicides in 2017.