Canada: Overdose & EMS Data

National fatality picture

An average of 20 lives were lost each day in Canada because of opioid-related overdoses in 2024. Your estimate of ~6–7 for BC alone is consistent with this — BC, Alberta, and Ontario together account for the bulk of national deaths. Canada.ca

National EMS responses (Canada-wide)

There were a total of 272,875 EMS responses to suspected opioid-related overdoses reported between January 2017 and September 2025. A total of 28,084 EMS responses to suspected opioid-related overdoses were reported so far in 2025 (January to September). That works out to roughly 3,100 EMS opioid calls per month nationally, or about 100 per day — and this is likely an undercount given varying reporting standards across provinces. Health Canada

BC specifically — the most detailed provincial data available

BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) paramedics responded to an average of 111 overdose/poisoning patient events per day in 2024, totalling 40,543 events for the year. Since the public health emergency for toxic drugs was declared in 2016, BCEHS has seen a 105% total increase in annual overdose/poisoning events. Bcehs

In 2024, BCEHS experienced 10 months with more than 3,000 overdose/poisoning events. The average monthly call volume prior to the pandemic had been about 2,000 overdose events a month. Bcehs

So in BC alone, EMS is responding to roughly ~17× more calls than fatalities — a striking ratio that illustrates how many people are being pulled back from the brink daily.

Take-Home Naloxone in BC

BC hands out 400,000 naloxone kits annually. BC was the first province in Canada to establish a provincewide take-home naloxone program. Community-administered naloxone (outside of EMS) is tracked separately but incompletely — many reversals go unreported because bystanders don't always call 911. Global News

Supervised Consumption Sites (national)

From January 2017 to May 2025, supervised consumption sites received over 5.3 million visits, responded to over 65,000 non-fatal overdoses, and made more than 624,000 referrals to health and social services. Canada.ca

United States: The Bigger Picture

Fatal overdoses declining but still enormous

New preliminary CDC data predicts 69,973 drug overdose deaths for the 12 months ending in December 2025 — a 13.9% decline from the previous year. That is still roughly 192 deaths per day in the US. Provisional CDC data shows 80,499 overdose deaths in 2024, a 23% decline — with 88% of opioid-involved overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids. CDCOverdose Lifeline

EMS calls

Suspected opioid overdose calls dropped to just 1% of all EMS calls in 2024, down from 2% the previous year, aligning with national CDC reports showing a decline in overdose-related deaths. With roughly 40 million EMS calls annually in the US, that still translates to hundreds of thousands of opioid-specific EMS responses per year. EMS1

Naloxone dispensing tracked nationally

The CDC tracks the estimated rate of pharmacy-dispensed naloxone prescriptions in the US, with data covering January through December 2025. The CDC's DOSE-DIS dashboard also tracks nonfatal overdose emergency department and inpatient hospitalization discharge data separately. CDC

Key Data Gaps & Caveats

A few important limitations in the existing data:

• Community naloxone reversals are severely undercounted. When a bystander uses a take-home kit and doesn't call 911, it usually goes unlogged. Research from BC found that medical help was sought for only 55.7% of overdoses where naloxone was administered — meaning roughly half of community reversals never enter official data. ScienceDirect

• Case definitions vary by province and state, making cross-jurisdictional comparisons difficult.

• Reporting lags of 1–2 months are common due to toxicology testing requirements.

Where to Find the Data

The best ongoing public dashboards are:

• Canada: health-infobase.canada.ca — updated quarterly with EMS, ED, hospitalization, and death data

• BC specifically: bcehs.ca overdose data page — monthly BCEHS call volumes

• BCCDC dashboard: Tracks take-home naloxone kits, OAT, and supervised site usage

• US/CDC: cdc.gov/overdose-prevention — includes the DOSE-DIS dashboard for nonfatal ED visits and naloxone dispensing maps

The overall picture is that for every opioid death, there are likely 15–20+ EMS responses and many more community-level reversals that never get counted. The true scale of active overdose events is substantially larger than the fatality numbers suggest.