The United States has the highest rate of overdose deaths in the world by a substantial margin, according to a Jan. 9 report by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund.
It ranked last on a list of 31 countries and one U.S. territory, ordered by overdose death rates from lowest to highest, with 324 deaths per 1 million people in 2022. Puerto Rico was not included in the U.S. total. The U.S. territory had 246 deaths per 1 million that year, ranking just above the United States, in the report.
Scotland had the third-highest overdose mortality rate, with 219 deaths per 1 million in 2022, followed by Canada at 193 deaths, although both countries have seen declines in overdose death rates from 2021 to 2022….