{
  "id": "toxic-drug-deaths-bc",
  "category": "Health and safety",
  "title": "Deaths from toxic drugs (apparent opioid toxicity), B.C.",
  "geography": "British Columbia (province-wide; not available for Victoria or Island Health as open data)",
  "scope": "province",
  "levels": [
    "Provincial (health and coroner services)",
    "Federal (national surveillance)"
  ],
  "plain_question": "How many people in B.C. died of toxic drug poisoning involving opioids this year?",
  "value": 1855,
  "display_value": "1,855",
  "unit": "deaths in the calendar year",
  "period": "Calendar year 2025",
  "period_start": "2025-01-01",
  "period_end": "2025-12-31",
  "comparison": {
    "previous_period": "Calendar year 2024",
    "previous_value": 2025,
    "change_percent": -8.4
  },
  "trend": "improving",
  "trend_basis": "1,855 in 2025 compared with 2,025 in 2024 (-8.4%). Rate per 100,000 people: 32.6 in 2025, 35.7 in 2024.",
  "direction_good": "down",
  "right_direction": "A lower number means fewer people died of toxic drug poisoning.",
  "caveats": [
    "This is the provincial figure. A Victoria or Island Health breakdown exists on the BC Coroners Service dashboard, but that dashboard's data could not be downloaded and checked by script, so it is not shown here yet.",
    "Method change: B.C. figures for 2016 to 2024 include only deaths with completed investigations. From 2025 on, the overall B.C. number also includes deaths with ongoing investigations, and covers deaths related to all unregulated drugs, not only opioids. The drop from 2024 to 2025 therefore partly reflects a different way of counting, and the 2025 figure is preliminary and may change (PHAC technical notes, note 9).",
    "These counts are compiled by the Public Health Agency of Canada from provincial coroner data and can differ from figures the province publishes directly.",
    "Place is where the death occurred, not where the overdose occurred.",
    "Preliminary figure for the first quarter of 2026 (January to March): 413 deaths. This is part of a year and is not comparable to the yearly totals."
  ],
  "series": [
    {
      "period": "2016",
      "value": 807
    },
    {
      "period": "2017",
      "value": 1300
    },
    {
      "period": "2018",
      "value": 1401
    },
    {
      "period": "2019",
      "value": 903
    },
    {
      "period": "2020",
      "value": 1563
    },
    {
      "period": "2021",
      "value": 2033
    },
    {
      "period": "2022",
      "value": 2112
    },
    {
      "period": "2023",
      "value": 2293
    },
    {
      "period": "2024",
      "value": 2025
    },
    {
      "period": "2025",
      "value": 1855
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "Public Health Agency of Canada, Opioid- and Stimulant-related Harms in Canada (data from provincial coroners and medical examiners)",
    "url": "https://health-infobase.canada.ca/substance-related-harms/opioids-stimulants/",
    "dataset_url": "https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/1092497d-6c72-4e66-930b-9d6337e64af5",
    "download_url": "https://health-infobase.canada.ca/api/opioids/linked/export/opioids/csv"
  },
  "licence": {
    "name": "Open Government Licence - Canada",
    "url": "https://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada"
  },
  "refresh_frequency": "Quarterly",
  "data_published": "2026-09-22",
  "retrieved_at": "2026-11-11T06:52:30Z"
}