Drug-induced deaths

For related content on drug-induced deaths, see also:

> Health impacts: Drug-induced deaths

Drug-induced deaths are defined as those that can be directly attributable to drug use (i.e. where drug overdose is recorded as the underlying cause of death), as determined by toxicology and pathology reports. See also the Technical notes.

The following data visualisation shows drug-induced deaths in Australia from 2009 to 2019, by remoteness area and drug type or drug class. Click to view the data as number of drug-induced deaths or age-standardised rate (per 100,000 population).

Number or age-standardised rate (per 100,000 population) of drug-induced deathsᵃ, by remoteness area and drug type or drug class, 2009 to 2019

This figure shows that the number of drug-induced deaths for All antidepressants was consistently higher in Major cities than Regional and remote areas from 2009 to 2019. In 2019, there were 387 deaths related to All antidepressants in Major cities, compared to 173 in Regional and remote areas. The number of deaths has increased overall from 2009 to 2019, but has declined since 2017 in both Major cities and Regional and remote areas. A filter allows the user to select different drug types and view the rate of drug induced-deaths.

Visualisation not available for printing