Australians in their 50s have become the largest cohort for unintentional drug-induced deaths for the first time, as stimulant and heroin deaths hit record levels. WA has the nation’s highest overdose rate.
Australians aged 50-59 years have recorded more unintentional drug-induced deaths than any other age group for the first time in 2024, as deaths involving amphetamine-type stimulants and heroin reach record highs.
Penington Institute’s Australia’s Annual Overdose Report 2026 recorded 2596 drug-induced deaths nationally in 2024, including a record 2091 unintentional deaths.
The report said the long-term trend remained sharply upward.
“While Australia’s population has increased by 41% since 2001, the number of unintentional drug-induced deaths has grown by 113%,” it said.
The age profile was also shifting.
People aged 50-59 accounted for 533 unintentional drug-induced deaths in 2024, or 25.5% of the total, overtaking the 40-49 age group for the first time.
Deaths among people aged 50-59 increased more than fivefold since 2001, while deaths among those aged 60-69 more than tripled.
“In 2024 people aged 50-59 accounted for a greater number of unintentional drug-induced deaths for the first time, and almost half of such deaths occurred among people aged 50 and above,” the report said.
Stimulant toll climbs
Opioids remained the most commonly recorded drug type, involved in 877 unintentional deaths, or 41.9% of the total.
But amphetamine-type stimulants were involved in a record 772 deaths – up 25.1% from 2023 – and accounted for 36.9% of unintentional drug-induced deaths.
Their share rose from just 5.4% in 2001, with stimulants overtaking benzodiazepines as the second-most common drug type for the second consecutive year.
Heroin deaths also reached a record high, with 488 unintentional deaths involving the drug in 2024, up from 101 in 2001.
Heroin accounted for 55.6% of unintentional opioid-related deaths, compared with 42.2% involving pharmaceutical opioids.
Most deaths did not involve a single substance. Over the five years to 2024, 67.8% of unintentional drug-induced deaths involved two or more drug types.
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WA leads death rate
Western Australia continued to record the nation’s highest unintentional drug-induced death rate, reaching nine deaths per 100,000 people in 2024.
Its rate increased 233% from 2.7 per 100,000 in 2004 and, apart from 2016, had been the highest in Australia every year since 2011.
South Australia recorded 8.5 deaths per 100,000, Victoria 8.1, and Queensland 7.4.
Nationally, people outside capital cities recorded a higher rate than those in metropolitan areas – 8.1 deaths per 100,000 compared with 7.1.
Penington Institute chief executive John Ryan said the figures showed drug use patterns and harms were changing while policy responses remained too static.
“The findings should be a wake-up call for governments, policymakers and the community,” he wrote.
“We cannot change the past. But we can change what happens next.”
Read the full report here.
