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Seattle · Drugs & public health

See the trend.

What changed, how much, and over which years.

Explore recorded drug offences and available overdose deaths. Each measure keeps its own definition and geography.

Compare with other cities →

On the ground

Independent street reporting
The Seattle chapter title over a street scene in Nick Shirley’s video. Pike Place to 12th & Jackson Watch Seattle 12:11

Video still · Nick Shirley · Frame at 12:16 ↗

Reporting by Nick Shirley

Seattle,
on the ground.

Shirley calls the blocks by Pike Place a ghost town, interviews a woman who says she has lost friends to fentanyl, and walks 12th and Jackson with Jonathan Choe, including stolen goods sold on the street.

Watch this city 12:11 ↗

Published

Inside this segment

  1. Seattle: Ghost Town by Pike Place
  2. She's Lost 21 Friends to Fentanyl
  3. 12th and Jackson With Jonathan Choe
  4. Stolen Goods Sold for Pennies

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 data

Death figures cover King County, Washington, including areas beyond Seattle. 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

Drug offence trends

Select a measure to inspect its trend. Missing years stay blank; partial years stay separate.

City of Seattle

Drug/narcotic violations

Last updated Reviewed dataset

Latest complete year · 20251,571NIBRS offense rows
Year over year+46.1%2024 → 2025
Change since 2016−6.4%2016 → 2025
Annual trend · complete years
NIBRS offense rows2025 · 1,571
01.2K2.4K2016: 1,6792017: 2,1792018: 2,0462019: 1,5622020: 9572021: 3712022: 6802023: 6342024: 1,0752025: 1,571201620212025
View chart data
Drug/narcotic violations · NIBRS offense rows · complete years
YearValue
20161,679
20172,179
20182,046
20191,562
2020957
2021371
2022680
2023634
20241,075
20251,571

02 / Public health

Overdose deaths

Deaths are a separate measure. Police counts do not measure overdose deaths or drug use.

King County, Washington · county context

Drug overdose deaths · county residents

Last updated Reviewed dataset

Latest complete year · 2024977deaths
Year over year−21.9%2023 → 2024
Change since 2020+97.4%2020 → 2024
Annual trend · complete years
deaths2024 · 977
0700.61.4K2020: 4952021: 6672022: 9152023: 1,2512024: 977202020222024
View chart data
Drug overdose deaths · county residents · deaths · complete years
YearValue
2020495
2021667
2022915
20231,251
2024977

Compare available death trends →

03 / Behind the numbers

Sources & coverage

Last updated 2026-10-01 · accepted source review.

  • These Seattle Police Department offense rows are separate from the street reporting on this page. They do not measure what the film shows.
  • There is no neighbourhood drug map.
  • These measures are not added into a drug index or used to rank cities. There is no neighbourhood drug map.
Seattle Police Department · SPD Crime Data: 2008-Present

Open source ↗ · Last updated 2026-10-01 (reviewed)

City of Seattle · Public Domain (data.seattle.gov license field).

CDC / National Center for Health Statistics · County-level drug overdose death counts — December annual totals

Open source ↗ · Last updated 2026-10-01 (reviewed)

King County, Washington · county context · Public Domain U.S. Government; attribution and non-endorsement notice retained.

Completeness of provisional 2019 data under 90% after 6 months.