Drug-Related Deaths Doubled In Bergen County Over Past Decade

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — Drug-related death rates in Bergen County have doubled over the past ten years, according to New Jersey State Police data released Thursday.

The average monthly deaths in the county jumped from six in 2012 to 15 in 2022, according to a report on opioids in New Jersey released Thursday.

Bergen County tied with Orange County for the fifth-highest monthly average in 2022, topped only by Essex at 38, Camden at 31 and Atlantic at 21, the New Jersey division of the Drug Enforcement Administration reported.

The data also show signs for optimism, as this year's monthly average fell from the time span the year before.

Bergen County reached peak mortality in 2021 with 183 deaths recorded between January and October, but this year the number of lives lost dropped to 154, data show.

That's a 16 percent decrease.

Bergen County's numbers track with state trends that saw a similar trend on bigger scale.

New Jersey's monthly average of drug-related deaths was 242 this year, which is more than double the 102-per-month average in 2012.

Again, as in Bergen County, the state also saw numbers ease after a peak in 2021.

In the first 10 months of 2021, New Jersey saw 2,684 drug-related deaths. This year, the number dropped to 2,422.

Read the full report here.