ISSN: 2981-8036

This report presents the most recent and in-depth data on overdose and drug-induced deaths in Australia, covering the period 2003 to 2022. It is the most recent output in a series of annual publications on trends in drug overdose deaths issued by Drug Trends for over 20 years.

This publication includes:

Findings are reported by age, sex, jurisdiction, remoteness area, socio-economic status, intent, psychosocial risk factors, and drug type.

Our public online data visualisation allows viewers to disaggregate data in different ways, and to download these images for their own use.

Jurisdictional summary reports

For a summary of findings on trends in overdose and other drug-induced deaths for other jurisdictions, please see the full report or go to the jurisdictional summary reports:

Recommended citation: Chrzanowska A, Man N, Sutherland R, Degenhardt L, Peacock A. Trends in overdose and other drug-induced deaths in Australia, 2003-2022. Sydney: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney; 2024. Available from: http://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/30158.

This report was prepared by researchers from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre for the Drug Trends program. The Drug Trends program is coordinated by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney and undertaken in partnership with Burnet, National Drug Research Institute, University of Queensland, and the University of Tasmania.

This work is copyright. You may download, display, print and reproduce this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. All other rights are reserved. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to NDARC, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.

Contact

Please contact the Drug Trends team with any queries regarding this publication: drugtrends@unsw.edu.au.

Funding

The Drug Trends program is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care under the Drug and Alcohol Program.

Data source

We acknowledge all state and territory Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages, the Coroners and the National Coronial Information System (NCIS) for enabling Cause of Death Unit Record File (COD URF) data to be used for this publication.