While nationwide overdose deaths declined significantly through 2024 and 2025, under Katie Hobbs’ watch Arizona’s overall per capita overdose death rates bucked the national trend by climbing higher, putting Arizona’s youth at risk and parents on edge.
New research has revealed the Arizona counties in which the highest rate of accidental overdose deaths occur, with Apache County at number one.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the most recently available six-year period (2019 to 2024) on the number of accidental deaths caused by overdoses recorded in every county in the US. Experts at Ojai Recovery, a substance abuse treatment facility, compared these figures to the population of each county to determine those with the highest accidental overdose rate per 100,000 residents during this period.
Top ten Arizona counties with the highest rate of accidental overdoses over the six-year period
| Rank | County | Number of accidental overdoses per 100,000 residents (2019-2024) |
| 1 | Apache County | 58.4 |
| 2 | Navajo County | 49.5 |
| 3 | Pima County | 42.4 |
| 4 | Gila County | 40.7 |
| 5 | La Paz County | 34.5 |
| 6 | Maricopa County | 33.6 |
| 7 | Mohave County | 32.2 |
| 8 | Cochise County | 29.7 |
| 9 | Greenlee County | 29 |
| 10 | Graham County | 26.9 |
Apache County is number one, with 58.4 accidental overdose deaths per 100,000 residents during the time period analyzed. The county recorded 38 deaths due to accidental overdose from 2019 to 2024.
Navajo County is second, with a rate of 49.5 per 100,000 people. Navajo County saw a total of 54 deaths due to accidental overdose from 2019 to 2024.
Pima County ranks third, with a rate of 42.4 per 100,000 residents, which comes from a total death count of 451 during the six-year period.
Gila County comes in fourth, with a rate of 40.7 accidental overdose deaths per 100,000 people. Overall, the county saw 22 deaths during this time period.
La Paz County is fifth, with 34.5 accidental overdose deaths per 100,000 people, which is equal to between one and nine deaths during the time period analyzed.
Maricopa County ranks sixth, with a rate of 33.6 per 100,000 residents, followed by Mohave County and Cochise County, at 32.2 and 29.7, respectively. Rounding out the top ten are Greenlee County and Graham County, with 29 and 26.9 accidental overdose deaths per 100,000 people from 2019 to 2024, respectively.
“Apache County, Arizona, the highest-ranking county in the list, has a rate of 58.4 accidental overdoses per 100,000 people in just six years. To put this into perspective, that’s equal to one life lost per 1,712 people, highlighting the severity of the drug problem that the country is facing,” said Jason Landver, CEO of Ojai Recovery.
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