Data on drug overdose death rates, by drug type and selected population characteristics. Please refer to the PDF or Excel version of this table in the HUS 2019 Data Finder (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2019.htm) for critical information about measures, definitions, and changes over time. SOURCE: NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, numerator data from annual public-use Mortality Files; denominator data from U.S. Census Bureau national population estimates; and Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Arias E, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: Final data for 2018. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 69 no 13. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.2021. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/nvsr.htm. For more information on the National Vital Statistics System, see the corresponding Appendix entry at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus19-appendix-508.pdf.

This data presents counts of provisional drug overdose deaths by selected drugs and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) public health regions, based on provisional mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System. This data is limited to drug overdose deaths with an underlying cause of death assigned to International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) code numbers X40-X44 (unintentional), X60-X64 (suicide), X85 (homicide), or Y10-Y14 (undetermined intent). Specific drugs were identified using methods for searching literal text from death certificates. The provisional data are based on a current flow of mortality data and include reported 12 month-ending provisional counts of drug overdose deaths by jurisdiction of occurrence and specified drug. Provisional drug overdose death counts presented on this page are for “12-month ending periods,” defined as the number of deaths occurring in the 12-month period ending in the month indicated. For example, the 12-month ending period in June 2022 would include deaths occurring from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022. Evaluation of trends over time should compare estimates from year to year (June 2021 and June 2022), rather than month to month, to avoid overlapping time periods. It is important to note that the data represent counts of deaths, and not mortality ratios or rates, which are the standard measure used to compare groups, and therefore should not be used to determine populations at disproportionate risk of drug overdose death.