Methamphetamine has been reshaping the American overdose crisis in ways that are still not fully understood by the general public. While fentanyl dominates headlines, methamphetamine has quietly become the second most common drug found in overdose deaths in the United States — and its footprint in the drug crisis has expanded rapidly, crossing geographic, demographic and socioeconomic lines that it never historically reached. The data tell a story that demands attention: not of a drug confined to a particular region or community, but of a growing national public health emergency.
This page compiles current, verified statistics on methamphetamine use, use disorder, overdose mortality, demographics and treatment from primary government and peer-reviewed sources. Every figure cited here is drawn directly from those sources and attributed accordingly. If you or someone you love is struggling with methamphetamine use, the National Rehab Hotline is available 24 hours a day — call 866-210-1303 for free, confidential support.
Methamphetamine Use: Prevalence and Scope
According to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in 2025, approximately 2.4 million people aged 12 and older in the United States used methamphetamine in the past year — representing 0.8% of the population in that age group. This figure has remained statistically stable since 2021, with no significant change detected across the 4-year trend period from 2021 to 2024.
The 2023 NSDUH reported a nearly identical figure: 2.6 million past-year users, or 0.9% of Americans aged 12 and older. These consistent estimates indicate that while overdose-related harms have grown dramatically, the raw number of people using methamphetamine at the population level has plateaued — a pattern that researchers attribute in part to significant increases in potency and purity of available methamphetamine rather than a widening user base.
Use by Age Group
Past-year methamphetamine use in 2024 varied substantially by age, with use concentrated heavily among adults, per the 2024 NSDUH:
- Adults aged 26 and older: 1.0% (approximately 2.2 million people) — the highest rate of any age group
- Young adults aged 18 to 25: 0.5%
- Adolescents aged 12 to 17: 0.2% (approximately 57,000 people)
Use by Sex
The prevalence of past-year methamphetamine use among males was reported at 1.1%, compared to 0.5% among females — a gender gap of approximately 2:1. This disparity has been consistent across recent survey years, though research has documented that the gap in methamphetamine use disorder (as opposed to use alone) narrowed significantly between 2015 and 2019, with use disorder prevalence more than tripling among women during that period.
Use by Race and Ethnicity
Methamphetamine use rates vary meaningfully by race and ethnicity. According to the 2024 NSDUH:
- Non-Hispanic people of two or more races: 1.7% — highest of any group
- Non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native individuals: 1.4%
- Non-Hispanic White individuals: 1.0%
- Hispanic individuals: 0.8%
These figures reflect use rates; overdose mortality rates, discussed below, tell a more alarming story, particularly for American Indian and Alaska Native populations.
Geographic Patterns
Methamphetamine use is highest in the South and West Census regions, where rates of past-year use were both 0.9% in 2024. Rates are elevated in nonmetropolitan and completely rural areas compared to large metro areas. However, a significant and well-documented shift has occurred over the past decade: historically, northeastern states and urban populations that didn’t experience significant methamphetamine markets have seen dramatic increases in methamphetamine-related overdose deaths — a geographic spread that researchers at the CDC have described as a defining feature of the current epidemic.
Methamphetamine Use Disorder
Use and use disorder aren’t the same thing, and the gap between them is instructive. Research published in JAMA Psychiatry by Han and colleagues (2021), using pooled data from the 2015–2019 NSDUHs, found that among U.S. adults aged 18 to 64 who used methamphetamine in the past year, the prevalence of methamphetamine use disorder (MUD) surpassed the prevalence of use without disorder in every year from 2017 to 2019. Put more plainly: by the late 2010s, most adults who used methamphetamine had a clinical diagnosis of use disorder — indicating a highly addictive drug with little middle ground between occasional use and compulsive use.
Among adults aged 18 to 64, approximately 52.9% of those reporting past-year methamphetamine use between 2015 and 2018 met criteria for methamphetamine use disorder, according to a CDC analysis published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) in 2020.
Trends in Use Disorder by Demographic Group (2015–2019)
The Han et al. JAMA Psychiatry analysis documented dramatic increases in methamphetamine use disorder across nearly all demographic groups over a 4-year period:
- Among heterosexual women: the adjusted prevalence of MUD more than tripled, from 0.24% to 0.74%
- Among lesbian or bisexual women: more than tripled, from 0.21% to 0.71%
- Among heterosexual men: more than doubled, from 0.29% to 0.79%
- Among Black individuals: increased more than tenfold, from 0.06% to 0.64% — the steepest increase of any racial or ethnic group documented
- Among white individuals: nearly tripled, from 0.28% to 0.78%
- Among Hispanic individuals: more than doubled, from 0.39% to 0.82%
Risk Factors for Use Disorder
Research from multiple NSDUH analyses has consistently identified the following characteristics as associated with higher odds of methamphetamine use, use disorder and injection:
- Lower educational attainment
- Annual household income below $50,000
- Lack of health insurance or Medicaid-only coverage
- Housing instability
- Criminal justice involvement (probation or parole)
- Co-occurring HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B or C or depression
- Suicidal ideation
- Polysubstance use, particularly co-use with opioids
- Residence in nonmetropolitan or rural areas
Methamphetamine Overdose Deaths
The overdose mortality picture for methamphetamine is where the data become most alarming — and most misunderstood. Methamphetamine doesn’t produce the respiratory depression that drives opioid overdose, meaning a “meth overdose” looks clinically distinct from a fentanyl overdose. However, methamphetamine is now the second most commonly found drug in overdose deaths in the United States, often in combination with opioids — a pattern that has transformed the overdose landscape in ways standard opioid reversal medications alone can’t fully address.
Overdose Death Rates: Long-Term Trend
According to CDC NCHS Data Brief No. 522 and prior CDC briefs, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving psychostimulants — a category that includes methamphetamine, amphetamine and methylphenidate — increased dramatically over two decades:
- 2002: 0.3 deaths per 100,000 standard population
- 2003: 0.4 per 100,000
- 2010: 0.6 per 100,000
- 2013: 1.2 per 100,000
- 2019: 5.0 per 100,000 — a more than 300% increase from 2013 alone
- 2021: 10.0 per 100,000
- 2022: 10.4 per 100,000 — a 34-fold increase from the 2002 rate of 0.3
- 2023: 10.6 per 100,000 — a slight increase from 2022
2024 Overdose Deaths: A Significant Decline
The most recent data show an encouraging reversal. According to CDC NCHS Data Brief No. 549 (released January 2026), the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving psychostimulants declined significantly from 2023 to 2024, part of a broad 26.2% drop in overall overdose deaths. Total drug overdose deaths fell from 105,007 in 2023 to 79,384 in 2024 — the largest single-year decline on record. Stimulant-involved deaths declined as part of this overall trend.
Methamphetamine as a Proportion of All Overdose Deaths
Despite overall declines in raw overdose death counts, methamphetamine’s share of all overdose deaths has continued to grow as a proportion. According to research presented to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in August 2025 by Dr. Christopher M. Jones (HHS/SAMHSA), citing CDC National Vital Statistics System data:
- In 2019, deaths involving psychostimulants represented 22.9% of all overdose deaths.
- By 2024 (provisional data), that proportion had risen to an estimated 36.2% of all overdose deaths.
Co-Involvement of Opioids in Meth Overdose Deaths
One of the most clinically significant findings in recent methamphetamine research is the increasing co-involvement of opioids — particularly illicitly manufactured fentanyl — in methamphetamine-involved overdose deaths. This co-use may be intentional (users combining stimulants and depressants) or inadvertent (methamphetamine supply contaminated with fentanyl).
- In 2010, opioids were involved in 34.5% of psychostimulant-involved overdose deaths.
- By 2019, that figure had risen to 53.5% — an increase of more than 50%.
- From 2018 to 2024 (provisional), the percentage of opioid-involved overdose deaths that also involved psychostimulants rose from 13.7% to 32.4%.
- The percentage of psychostimulant overdose deaths that also involved opioids peaked at 69.4% in 2023.
Because methamphetamine itself doesn’t cause respiratory depression, the opioid component in these deaths is frequently the proximate cause of death. This means naloxone (Narcan) administration remains critical at any meth-involved overdose where opioid co-use is suspected — which, given current drug supply contamination, is an increasingly common scenario.
Treatment Admissions and Utilization
Methamphetamine is one of the leading substances driving treatment admissions in publicly funded programs across the United States. Research published in Addictive Behaviors by Jones and colleagues (2023), drawing on Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) data from SAMHSA, found that primary methamphetamine treatment admissions increased from 138,379 in 2010 to 201,021 in 2019 — a 45% increase over 9 years. Of those admissions in 2019, injection was the usual route of use for 28.2% of patients, up from 18.0% in 2010.
Despite the growth in treatment need, there are currently no FDA-approved medications specifically for methamphetamine use disorder. The primary evidence-based treatments are behavioral: contingency management — an incentive-based intervention — and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). A 2021 randomized clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Trivedi et al., the ADAPT-2 trial) found that a combination of extended-release naltrexone and daily extended-release bupropion produced a significantly higher response rate than placebo in people with moderate to severe methamphetamine use disorder, though this combination hasn’t yet received FDA approval for this indication.
Health Consequences of Methamphetamine Abuse
Beyond overdose, methamphetamine is associated with a wide spectrum of serious health consequences, documented across multiple peer-reviewed and government sources. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), methamphetamine affects nearly every major organ system.
Mental Health
- Methamphetamine-induced psychosis — including hallucinations, paranoia and delusions — is a well-documented consequence of both acute intoxication and chronic use. It may persist for months or years after cessation.
- Depression, anxiety and severe cognitive impairment affecting memory, attention and decision-making are associated with long-term use.
- Suicidal ideation is significantly elevated among people with methamphetamine use disorder.
Cardiovascular
- Methamphetamine causes acute increases in heart rate and blood pressure and is associated with arrhythmias, myocardial infarction (heart attack), stroke and cardiomyopathy with prolonged use.
- Cardiovascular events, including stroke and heart failure, are among the leading causes of death among people with long-term methamphetamine use disorder, per NIDA.
Infectious Disease
- Methamphetamine use is associated with elevated rates of HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C transmission through both shared injection equipment and sexual risk behaviors associated with methamphetamine’s effects on libido and judgment.
- According to NIDA, persistent methamphetamine use is the single largest risk factor for acquiring HIV among sexual minorities who have sex with men.
- Research presented at IDWeek 2024 documented that methamphetamine use undermines HIV treatment effectiveness, reducing viral suppression even in individuals who are adherent to antiretroviral therapy.
Other Health Effects
- Severe dental deterioration (“meth mouth”) from dry mouth, teeth grinding and poor oral hygiene
- Significant weight loss and malnutrition from appetite suppression
- Skin sores from compulsive picking related to the sensation of bugs under the skin (formication)
- Renal dysfunction with chronic use
- Neonatal complications and adverse outcomes when used during pregnancy
Methamphetamine and the Broader Drug Supply
An important dimension of current meth statistics is the transformed supply environment. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the vast majority of methamphetamine available in the United States is produced in Mexico and distributed through domestic trafficking networks. DEA data show that methamphetamine purity has increased dramatically in recent years, contributing to greater addiction potential and overdose risk at the same or lower doses than in prior eras. Methamphetamine has also increasingly been found in counterfeit pills mimicking prescription stimulants (such as Adderall) and in supplies of MDMA, exposing users to potent stimulants without their knowledge.
The contamination of the meth supply with illicitly manufactured fentanyl — while less common than fentanyl contamination of opioid supplies — has been documented and represents an additional overdose risk, particularly given that users may not recognize the symptoms of opioid overdose and may not have naloxone available.
You Don’t Have to Face This Alone
The statistics tell a story of a drug crisis that has grown more complex, more dangerous and more deadly over the past decade — even as recent declines offer cautious hope. Behind every number is a person and a family navigating a treatable medical condition.
When you’re ready to take the next step, help is just a phone call away. Call the National Rehab Hotline at 866-210-1303 — available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It’s free and confidential, and you don’t have to face this alone.
FAQ: Methamphetamine Abuse Statistics
- How many people use methamphetamine in the United States?
According to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), released by SAMHSA in 2025, approximately 2.4 million people aged 12 and older used methamphetamine in the past year — representing 0.8% of that population. This figure has been statistically stable since 2021, with no significant change detected across the 4-year trend period. The 2023 NSDUH reported a similar figure of 2.6 million past-year users (0.9%). - How many people die from methamphetamine overdose each year?
Methamphetamine is typically captured in overdose death statistics under the CDC’s “psychostimulants with abuse potential” category, which includes methamphetamine, amphetamine and methylphenidate. The age-adjusted rate of deaths in this category was 10.6 per 100,000 in 2023, according to CDC NCHS Data Brief No. 522. The 2024 data (NCHS Data Brief No. 549) showed a decline as part of the broader 26.2% drop in overall overdose deaths that year, which brought total drug overdose deaths down to 79,384. - Is methamphetamine use increasing or decreasing?
The number of people using methamphetamine has remained relatively stable at around 2 to 2.6 million per year since 2021, per NSDUH data. However, overdose deaths involving methamphetamine increased dramatically between 2010 and 2022 — rising more than 34-fold in age-adjusted rate from the 2002 baseline — due primarily to increases in methamphetamine potency and the increasing co-involvement of fentanyl in the drug supply. Overdose death rates declined in 2024 as part of a broader national trend. As a proportion of all overdose deaths, stimulant-involved deaths have continued to represent a growing share even as raw numbers declined. - What is the relationship between methamphetamine and fentanyl?
Increasingly, methamphetamine overdose deaths involve fentanyl co-use — whether intentional polysubstance use or exposure to a contaminated drug supply. By 2023, opioids were involved in an estimated 69.4% of psychostimulant overdose deaths, according to CDC data. This means that many people who die in “meth overdoses” are actually dying from opioid-induced respiratory depression triggered by co-use with fentanyl. This makes naloxone availability critical for anyone using methamphetamine, even those who don’t consider themselves opioid users. - Is there a medication to treat methamphetamine addiction?
As of 2025, there are no FDA-approved medications specifically for methamphetamine use disorder. The most evidence-supported treatments are behavioral: contingency management (an incentive-based intervention proven effective in multiple randomized trials) and cognitive behavioral therapy. A 2021 randomized trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine found a combination of extended-release naltrexone and extended-release bupropion produced significantly better outcomes than placebo in individuals with moderate to severe methamphetamine use disorder. The National Rehab Hotline at 866-210-1303 can connect you with treatment programs offering evidence-based care for methamphetamine addiction.
If you don’t know where to start, the National Rehab Hotline can help. Call 866-210-1303 — it’s free, confidential and available 24/7.
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