Drug Overdose Deaths per 100,000 (12 Months) · Alaska

## What this measures

Deaths from drug overdoses that occurred in Alaska during the twelve months ending in the month shown, per 100,000 residents. Monthly, from the twelve months ending January 2015.

## Why it matters

The overdose crisis, driven since the mid-2010s by illicit fentanyl, has been one of the largest causes of early death in the United States and has hit states very unevenly. This rate shows how severe it is in Alaska, whether it is rising or falling, and how the state compares with others.

## How to read it

Deaths per 100,000 residents over a rolling year. Each month the window moves forward a month, so the series is smooth and has no seasonal pattern; a turn in the trend shows up gradually. The national rate peaked at about 33 per 100,000 in 2022–2023 and fell sharply in 2024 and 2025.

## What it does not say

The counts are provisional: recent months are incomplete because many overdose deaths need a toxicology investigation, so CDC publishes a predicted count adjusted for reporting delay, which Palanor uses when available (else the reported count); both are kept on each point. Deaths are counted where they occurred, residents or not, while the denominator is residents. It is a crude rate, not adjusted for age, so it differs from CDC's published age-adjusted rates. It does not say which drugs were involved. For New York, CDC reports New York City separately; Palanor adds the two.

## Source

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, VSRR Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts (data.cdc.gov dataset xkb8-kh2a), "Number of Drug Overdose Deaths", 12 month-ending. A work of the U.S. Government (17 U.S.C. §105), public domain. Source: CDC; use does not imply CDC endorsement. The rate is a Palanor calculation: deaths ÷ resident population × 100,000, with deaths and population kept on each point. Residents are the Census Bureau's July 1 resident population estimates for the year (Population Estimates Program: 2000–2009 intercensal, 2010–2019 Vintage 2020, 2020 on the newest vintage; a year the newest vintage does not reach yet uses its last year). A work of the U.S. Government (17 U.S.C. §105), public domain. Palanor rewrites the series monthly as CDC revises it.