Cook County Opioid Deaths By Year, From The Medical Examiner

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s case archive records 788 opioid deaths in 2025, the fewest since 2015 and 60.6 percent below the peak of 2,002 in 2022; 577 of them followed an incident in Chicago. Whether 2026 continues the fall, the archive cannot yet say. For January through May it holds 340 opioid deaths against 354 at that point in 2025, but 71 of this year’s January-to-May cases are still pending a cause, and 144 of July’s deaths and 195 of August’s are pending too. Chicago’s health department published four of its five 2026 alerts whose titles begin “Increase in Opioid Overdoses in Chicago” between June 3 and September 2, a stretch in which the archive still holds 547 pending deaths.

Cook County Medical Examiner Case Archive (cjeq-bs86), 98,705 case records, retrieved and last updated September 17, 2026, counted with aggregate queries only · deaths under the Medical Examiner’s jurisdiction, not every death in the county · “opioid death” is the archive’s own flag for a death caused by an opioid · recent months are incomplete while cases are pending · no person, address or place smaller than the city is published · counts are not rates · no cause is assigned to any change

Eleven full years, and this one so far

Deaths the archive flags as caused by an opioid, by year of death. “Cases pending” counts every death in the year, of any kind, still labeled PENDING on September 17, 2026.
Year	Opioid deaths	Of them, incident in Chicago	Chicago’s share	Cases pending
2015	675	411	60.9%	0
2016	1,127	756	67.1%	0
2017	1,196	810	67.7%	0
2018	1,168	814	69.7%	0
2019	1,296	907	70.0%	0
2020	1,848	1,329	71.9%	0
2021	1,937	1,455	75.1%	0
2022	2,002	1,408	70.3%	0
2023	1,822	1,371	75.2%	0
2024	1,171	849	72.5%	3
2025	788	577	73.2%	17
2026 (through Sept. 17)	457	327	—	618

The count rose from 675 in 2015 to more than 1,100 a year from 2016 through 2019, jumped to 1,848 in 2020 and peaked at 2,002 in 2022. It has fallen every year since: 1,822, 1,171 and 788. Chicago accounts for most of it — between 60.9 and 75.2 percent of the county’s opioid deaths in every full year, 73.2 percent in 2025. The archive records when and where deaths happened and, once a case is resolved, its cause; it does not record why a year rose or fell, and this page does not guess.

Why this summer cannot be read yet

As recorded on September 17, 2026. September 2026 runs through that day; the pending column counts deaths of any kind whose cause and manner are not yet determined.
Month of death	2025 opioid deaths	2026 opioid deaths so far	2026 deaths still pending
January	88	79	16 of 647
February	72	64	10 of 529
March	73	59	6 of 548
April	47	74	12 of 544
May	74	64	27 of 560
June	78	52	43 of 618
July	63	43	144 of 644
August	61	20	195 of 560
September	57	2	165 of 332
October	67	—	—
November	51	—	—
December	57	—	—

The archive already holds deaths whose cause is still being determined: 618 of 2026’s deaths are labeled PENDING and 685 have no opioid flag either way, against 17 and 53 for all of 2025. That is why the recent months look low. In 2025 no month has more than five deaths still pending; in 2026, pending cases climb from 16 in January to 144 in July and 195 in August. Even January through May is unsettled: 2026’s 340 opioid deaths trail 2025’s 354 by 14, with 71 of 2026’s cases from those months still pending. If 15 or more of them are found to be opioid deaths, those five months would end above 2025’s 354.

The alerts and the archive

Chicago’s Department of Public Health published five alerts in 2026 whose titles begin “Increase in Opioid Overdoses in Chicago” — on January 2, June 3, July 2, July 16 and September 2 — as this desk found in its reading of the department’s alert file. The alerts concern overdoses, which include ones people survive; the archive records deaths only, and only those under the Medical Examiner’s jurisdiction. The two records sit side by side here by date. The four summer alerts fall in months the archive has not yet resolved, so this page draws no conclusion from one about the other.

What the archive confirms, and what it cannot tell you

Confirmed, where the archive records them: a case’s date of death, manner label, opioid flag and the city where the incident occurred. Not shown here, by this page’s choice: any address, place smaller than the city, age, race or other detail of any person. Not in the archive: deaths outside the Medical Examiner’s jurisdiction — its description says not all deaths in the county are reported to the office — and non-fatal overdoses. The manner column’s note names five categories, but the archive also carries 638 cases labeled PENDING and 629 with no manner at all; one record is dated April 2027, and 75 have no date of death. Since April 1, 2022 the office no longer takes jurisdiction over hospital, nursing home or hospice COVID-19 deaths unless another factor falls within its jurisdiction, which is why this page does not compare the archive’s total deaths across years.

Where the record lives

The Medical Examiner Case Archive sits on Cook County’s data portal and is updated daily. Every figure here was computed from it as retrieved on September 17, 2026, except the alert dates, which come from the city health department’s alert file as retrieved on September 16.

The bottom line

Cook County’s recorded opioid deaths fell by 60.6 percent from 2022 to 2025, to 788, most of them in Chicago. This year’s count is not comparable yet: 547 deaths from June through September are still pending, the stretch in which the city health department published four alerts on rising overdoses.

Three questions the archive can answer

How many opioid deaths followed an incident in Chicago in 2025? 577 of the county’s 788. What was the highest year? 2022, with 2,002. How many of this year’s deaths are still pending? 618 as of September 17, 2026, of every kind, not only suspected overdoses.

Source: the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Case Archive (cjeq-bs86), 98,705 case records from August 2014, retrieved September 17, 2026.
Queries: every figure comes from grouped counts by year or month of death, the opioid flag, the manner label and whether the incident city is Chicago. No record was downloaded; addresses, coordinates, zip codes, wards, community areas, causes of death and every personal characteristic were never selected.
Years: full years 2015 through 2025; the archive begins in August 2014. The January-to-May comparison counts each year’s deaths from January 1 through May 31.
Chicago: the archive’s incident city; up to 29 opioid deaths a year have no incident city and are counted only in the county totals.
Not here: no rate, no cause for any change, no detail of any person or place, and no medical advice.

Computed by KCM Desk from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Case Archive, retrieved September 17, 2026, and the Chicago Department of Public Health’s Health Alert Network file. Human-guided and edited — about this desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.