The number of drug overdose deaths in regional Victoria has hit its highest level in ten years, with the regions now making up more than a-quarter of all drug-related fatalities.
169 people living in the regions lost their lives to overdoses in 2025, compared to 463 for Melbourne, according to new data from the state coroner’s office.
Thirteen of those fatalities were in the City of Ballarat.
The report, which details the incidence of fatal drug overdoses between 2016 and 2025, reveals an intensifying drug toxicity issue across Victoria’s regions.
Of the 632 deaths in Victoria in 2025, 169, or 26.7%, occurred in the regions – the highest number in at least ten years.
The increase was driven by a structural increase in illicit drug supply and widespread and increasing drug toxicity.
There was also an alarming and unprecedented surge in mortality among middle-aged men.
In the Bendigo region, which includes Bendigo, Mount Alexander, Campaspe, Hepburn and Central Goldfields, overdoses claimed 23 lives last year, seven more than the previous year, and 15 over the last decade.
Bendigo and Ballarat together posted 15% of all fatal overdoes outside the Melbourne metropolitan area.
The report also uncovered a growing disparity in fatalities based on gender, with deaths among men rising from 96 in 2023 to 156 in 2025 – a 63% increase in two years and the biggest jump in recorded history.
Picture: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images
