King County overdose deaths, the 12 months to March 2026
749 King County residents died of a drug overdose in the 12 months to March 2026, by the CDC’s provisional count — down 22.7% from the 12 months to March 2025. The rolling total peaked at 1,287 in the 12 months to October 2023, and the latest is 41.8% below it.
There are two counts of overdose deaths in King County, and they do not agree. The county’s own figure comes from the King County Medical Examiner: 914 deaths in 2025, the number in the annual post. CDC’s count for the same year is 848. They count different deaths. The Medical Examiner counts every overdose death that happens in King County, wherever the person lived. CDC counts King County residents, wherever they died. Someone from Snohomish or Pierce County who dies in Seattle is in the county’s count and not in CDC’s. CDC’s count is also provisional: deaths still waiting on toxicology are missing, so its newest months read low and rise for a year or more.
Each point on the chart is a total for 12 months, not one month’s deaths, so the line moves slowly by design and a turn appears months after it happened. CDC publishes six months after the death and updates the county figures every quarter, which is why this post runs four times a year.
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, VSRR Provisional County-Level Drug Overdose Death Counts, King County residents, 12 months ending; King County Medical Examiner’s Office via Public Health — Seattle & King County, deaths occurring in King County. Provisional counts are incomplete and rise as pending records close. Auto-generated each build.