Portland · Drugs & public health
What changed, how much, and over which years.
Explore recorded drug offences and available overdose deaths. Each measure keeps its own definition and geography.
On the ground
Independent street reporting
Chinatown & downtown Watch Portland 0:53 Video still · Nick Shirley · Frame at 10:47 ↗
Shirley films drug use in Chinatown in daylight, interviews a woman there about drugs, and shows boarded-up downtown storefronts.
Watch this city 0:53 ↗Published
Two ways to understand a place. These are the reporter’s observations and interviews at particular locations. The charts below track separately recorded police offences and available deaths across their stated geographies; they do not measure everything seen in the film.
Explore the dataDeath figures cover Multnomah County, Oregon, including areas beyond Portland. Source: CDC/NCHS. Original data are available free from CDC. This use does not imply endorsement by CDC, HHS or the U.S. Government.
01 / Police data
Select a measure to inspect its trend. Missing years stay blank; partial years stay separate.
City of Portland
Last updated Reviewed dataset
| Year | Value |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 1,745 |
| 2017 | 1,703 |
| 2018 | 1,764 |
| 2019 | 1,717 |
| 2020 | 972 |
| 2021 | 365 |
| 2022 | 514 |
| 2023 | 492 |
| 2024 | 640 |
| 2025 | 1,275 |
02 / Public health
Deaths are a separate measure. Police counts do not measure overdose deaths or drug use.
Multnomah County, Oregon · county context
Last updated Reviewed dataset
| Year | Value |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 250 |
| 2021 | 360 |
| 2022 | 428 |
| 2023 | 637 |
| 2024 | 535 |
03 / Behind the numbers
Last updated 2026-10-01 · accepted source review.
Open source ↗ · Last updated 2026-10-01 (reviewed)
City of Portland · Portland Police Bureau open data (Police Data Initiative). Attribute the Portland Police Bureau. No separate licence id is stated on the documents page.
Open source ↗ · Last updated 2026-10-01 (reviewed)
Multnomah County, Oregon · county context · Public Domain U.S. Government; attribution and non-endorsement notice retained.
Completeness of provisional 2019 data under 90% after 6 months.