Updated September 2026

Georgia Addiction and Treatment Statistics

Georgia's overdose deaths are falling. The treatment gap behind them is still wide: in 2025, 84 percent of people classified as needing substance use treatment nationally did not receive it. Most coverage carries the first fact and not the second.

This page collects the current Georgia figures on overdose, substance use, and access to treatment in one place, with every number labeled by its source and year so it can be cited directly.

Sources and Methodology How to Cite This Page

Overdose Deaths in Georgia

Georgia recorded a provisional 1,693 overdose deaths in 2025, down from a final 2,029 in 2024, a decline of about 16.6 percent. The age-adjusted rate fell from 18.1 to a provisional 15.0 per 100,000. The decline tracks a national pattern: final 2024 data puts the US total at 79,384, down 24 percent from 2023, and provisional 2025 counts give 69,387, about 12.6 percent lower.

Measure	Figure	Year	Source
Georgia overdose deaths	1,693	2025 (provisional)	CDC WONDER provisional data, via KFF, accessed September 14, 2026
Georgia overdose deaths	2,029	2024 (final)	CDC, via USAFacts state tables
Georgia age-adjusted overdose death rate	18.1 per 100,000	2024 (final)	CDC
Georgia age-adjusted overdose death rate	15.0 per 100,000	2025 (provisional)	CDC WONDER provisional data, via KFF
Georgia rate compared with the US rate	About 22% lower	2024	CDC, via USAFacts
Georgia decline, 12 months ending February 2026	About 16%	2026	Georgia Attorney General, citing CDC
US overdose deaths	69,387	2025 (provisional)	CDC WONDER provisional data, via KFF
US overdose deaths	79,384	2024 (final)	CDC WONDER
Georgia rate vs 2019 and 2014	38% and 52% higher	2024	CDC, via USAFacts

A note on provisional data. Counts for the most recent year are provisional and rise as late death certificates are processed. For jurisdictions with a high share of records pending investigation, provisional counts can understate the final total by a wide margin. Treat 2025 figures as a direction, not a settled number.

What Is Driving the Deaths

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were involved in 54 percent of Georgia overdose deaths in 2024, more than any other drug category. Nationally, opioid-involved deaths fell from 79,358 in 2023 to 54,045 in 2024 in final CDC data, driven mostly by a drop in fentanyl-involved deaths.

The change worth watching is not the total. It is who is at risk. Fentanyl now turns up in cocaine, methamphetamine, and counterfeit pressed pills, which means people who never intended to take an opioid are dying of one. That shift is why naloxone access and fentanyl test strips matter to populations that historically were not considered opioid-involved.

Between 2001 and 2024, the Georgia death rate involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids rose 33.7 times over. The methamphetamine-involved rate rose 36.0 times between 2002 and 2024.

The Treatment Gap

The overdose numbers get the headlines. The access numbers explain them, and they are the harder problem.

47.2 million

People aged 12 or older in the US who needed substance use treatment in the past year, which is 16.3 percent of that population.

7.6 million

People who received any substance use treatment that year, which is 16.0 percent of those who needed it and 2.6 percent of everyone aged 12 or older.

84 percent

Of people who needed substance use treatment in 2025, 84 percent, roughly 39.6 million people, did not receive it.

The harder number: among adults with a past-year substance use disorder who received no treatment, only 5.5 percent, about 2.0 million people, reported a perceived unmet need for treatment. The gap is not only about capacity or cost. Most people in it do not yet see themselves as needing help, which is why families and primary care physicians so often start the conversation rather than the person using.

Why Outpatient Capacity Matters in Georgia

Most coverage of addiction treatment pictures a residential facility. Most treatment is not that. Of the 7.6 million people who received substance use treatment in 2025, 4.4 million received outpatient treatment and 3.6 million received treatment by telehealth, against 2.2 million who received inpatient care. People often received more than one type. Of those treated as outpatients, 92.2 percent received that care somewhere other than a general medical clinic or doctor's office.

That distinction matters for Georgia. For many people, work schedules, childcare, transportation, and travel distance make treatment harder to start and harder to finish. Outpatient and telehealth options can reduce some of those logistical barriers when those levels of care are clinically appropriate.

It is also where level-of-care mismatch shows up. In our experience as an outpatient provider, someone who could be treated safely in a partial hospitalization or intensive outpatient program, but who is told the only option is a month of residential care, often chooses nothing at all.

For Reporters and Researchers

Hope Harbor Wellness is an outpatient addiction and mental health treatment center in Hiram, Georgia. We compiled this page because the Georgia figures are spread across several federal and state databases, and pulling them together takes longer than it should.

Every figure here is labeled with its source and year. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

Our clinical team is available as a source for stories on overdose trends, fentanyl in the drug supply, treatment access, insurance barriers, or the overlap between addiction and mental health in Georgia.

Call 770-573-9546 Contact Us

Sources and Methodology

Figures come from federal and state agencies. Where a number is provisional, it is labeled as such above. Provisional counts are resident-based extractions from CDC WONDER and will rise as investigations close. SAMHSA notes that questionnaire changes made during 2024 mean 2025 treatment estimates are not directly comparable with earlier years, so no year-over-year treatment trend is claimed here.

Federal sources

Georgia sources

If you are looking for help rather than data: the Georgia Crisis and Access Line at 1-800-715-4225 operates 24 hours a day and can connect anyone in Georgia with treatment and crisis services, including free and sliding-scale options. For immediate danger, call 911. For suicidal crisis support, call or text 988.