IORTI · Independent research

What people are dying of has changed

Counts are CDC provisional figures for the twelve months ending each December, taken directly from the CDC data service on 28 July 2026. They will be revised, generally upward.

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Deaths involving each drug, 2015 to 2025

Iowa and the country are moving differently

The same two lines, side by side: blue is opioid-involved deaths, green is stimulant-involved. Note the two charts have different vertical scales — these are counts, so Iowa's top gridline is 300 and the country's is 100,000. Iowa is not a scaled-down United States, and the difference is not subtle.

Per head, all four lines at once

Counts cannot be compared between a state and a country. Rates can. This is the same two drugs in the same two places, as deaths per 100,000 residents, on one axis. Iowa is drawn solid, the United States dashed.

What this means for Iowa

These four points are about Iowa specifically, and do not change with the toggle above.

Source. CDC Vital Statistics Rapid Release, provisional drug overdose death counts, twelve months ending December, resource xkb8-kh2a, retrieved 28 July 2026. Every figure on this page is a published CDC count, not a model output.

Drug categories overlap and are never added together. Counts for small states are volatile and provisional figures are revised upward as death certificates are completed.