5 - Current Data and Worldwide Opioid Misuse Statistics

Summary

The amount of people worldwide who regularly used opioids in 2021 is staggering, and if something is not done to change the course of this epidemic, the numbers will continue to increase year over year, just as they have done over the last decade. Roughly 275 million people globally report having used drugs of any kind in the past year, an increase of almost 50 million people over the past ten years. While some of this increase was due to the 10% rise in global population over the same period, this alone cannot account for the entirety of the 22% rise in global drug use. Health-care systems around the world are being stretched beyond their capabilities to manage a population this large, and the number of people with opioid use disorder is projected to continue to increase in size over the next decade. The effects of the opioid epidemic on healthcare systems are particularly devastating in poorer and middle-income countries with less robust resources. Over the past decade the number of individuals with opioid use disorder has increased by almost 9 million, an increase of over 33%, and now affects 0.7% of the current global population.