NC Fentanyl Statistics 2013-2022
13,376 Fentanyl Positive Deaths in North Carolina*^
| Year | # of fentanyl positive deaths^ | Difference from preveious year | % Increase from previous year |
| 2013 | 111 | 1st year of records | |
| 2014 | 212 | 101 | 91% |
| 2015 | 300 | 88 | 42% |
| 2016 | 442 | 142 | 47% |
| 2017 | 936 | 494 | 112% |
| 2018 | 1,229 | 293 | 31% |
| 2019 | 1,490 | 261 | 21% |
| 2020 | 2,426 | 936 | 63% |
| 2021^* | 3,168 | 742 | 31% |
| 2022^* | 3,062 | Jan-Nov2022 | 4% increase from same time period 2021 |
| 13,376 |
Data sources:
North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics Death Certificate Data
North Carolina Office of Chief Medical Examiner (NC OCME)
North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics Death Certificate Data (2020-2021*)
Analysis by: North Carolina Division of Public Health Injury and Violence Prevention Branch Epidemiology, Surveillance & Informatics Unit
*2022 data are provisional and subject to change
^There is no individual code for fentanyl involvement on a death certificate; instead, the code T40.4 – an overdose involving another synthetic narcotic is used as a proxy for fentanyl-involvement.
Fentanyl gets coded using the ‘other’ synthetic narcotic code, but there may be other drugs included in this category, however, we know from toxicology data that the majority of deaths receiving this code involved fentanyl.