North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum said during a July 9 interview that there were 110,000 overdose deaths in 2022.

Verdict: True

There were an estimated 109,680 overdose deaths in 2022, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Fact Check:

Burgum, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, discussed China, abortion and other subjects during a July 9 interview with NBC News’s Chuck Todd. During the interview, he claimed that 110,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2022.

“And these are things that the president right now, President Biden, has completely abdicated his responsibility on. Every state’s become a border state, 110,000 overdose deaths in this country last year, again. That’s – and that’s a statistic, but that’s 330 a day,” Burgum said.

This claim appears to be true. The CDC released preliminary data in May 2023 stating that 109,680 people were estimated to have died from drug overdoses in 2022. (RELATED: Nikki Haley Claims China Has The Largest Navy In The World)

“After adjustments for delayed reporting, the predicted number of drug overdose deaths showed an increase of 0.5% from the 12 months ending in December 2021 to the 12 months ending in December 2022, from 109,179 to 109,680.The biggest percentage increase in overdose deaths in 2022 occurred in Washington and Wyoming, where deaths were up 22%,” the CDC states.

More than 106,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2021, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The CDC estimated 109,179 deaths in 2021, according to the CDC’s May 2023 blog post.

Dr. Wilson M. Compton, the deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told The New York Times that the rise in deaths in 2020 and 2021 “were driven for the most part by the major changes of fentanyl availability around so many parts of the country.” Drug overdoses rapidly rose in both years, the outlet reported.

Lance Trover, a Burgum campaign spokesperson, pointed Check Your Fact to two articles reporting on the CDC data.

Check Your Fact reached out to the CDC for comment and will update this article if a response is provided.