North Carolina sees decline in opioid deaths
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North Carolina saw opioid deaths decline year over year, with a large chunk of the decline coming in its largest counties.
- The estimated opioid overdose death count in Wake County, for instance, saw a 19% decrease year-over-year, according to an Axios analysis of CDC data.
Why it matters: Wake County recorded 30 fewer overdose deaths than a year prior, but the crisis is still acute, claiming 130 lives in Wake County alone.
What's happening: The decline is not just happening in North Carolina, but across the country.
- The CDC has cited potential contributors to the national decline, including naloxone access, addiction treatment and changes in the drug supply, without establishing which factors specifically caused the drop.
Reality check: Health advocacy groups warn that the decline could reverse due to the changing landscape of drugs being sold on the streets, NPR reported.
- While public health agencies have begun adapting to the rise of fentanyl, for example, illicit chemists are now making batches of street drugs with new compounds that are complicating the health response, NPR noted.
By the numbers: The comparison covers the 12-month periods ending March 2025 and March 2026. In Wake County, the provisional count fell from 160 to 130 deaths.
- In Orange County, the reported count rose to 20, up from 18 (11% increase).
- In Durham County, the reported count fell to 63, down from 85 (26% decrease).
- In Johnston County, the reported count fell to 32, down from 34 (6% decrease).
The big picture: In North Carolina, 36 counties are falling, 15 rising and four unchanged among 55 counties with determinable direction.
- More than half of the net decline in opioid deaths came from five counties: Mecklenburg (deaths fell by 59), Wake (fell by 30), New Hanover (by 23) and Durham and Rockingham (22 each).
- The counties with the largest percentage growth in deaths year over year were rural Iredell, Scotland and Caldwell.