Drug Overdose Deaths in Big Cities
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Report Publish Date: August 2022
This issue brief examines drug overdose death rates in 35 big cities in 2020.
Primary Takeaways
The 35 cities’ overdose death rates ranged from 14 to 120 deaths per 100,000 people in 2020.
Drug overdose deaths in the cities nearly tripled between 2010 and 2020. Men were more than twice as likely as women to die from overdose.
While drug overdose rates were highest among White people in 2010 (23.7 overdose deaths per 100,000 people) compared to people of other races and ethnicities, by 2020 Black people had the highest rate (55.8 overdose deaths per 100,000 people).
Overview and Objectives
The Big Cities Health Coalition is made up of lead officials of the 35 largest city health departments. The coalition's Big Cities Health Inventory gathers data on member cities. While the overdose crisis was at first largely seen as a rural issue, overdose deaths have recently spiked in large cities as well. The authors wanted to know how many overdose deaths occur in coalition cities.
Hypothesis or Approach
The authors used overdose death data from the Big Cities Health Inventory.
How This Influences Change
Understanding the scope of overdose deaths in their cities and peer metro areas can help health officials design policy responses to drug use and overdose.
Research: Go Deeper
This brief uses data on overdose deaths from the Big Cities Health Inventory (BCHI) data platform. Data are shown for the 35 member cities in the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC).
Drexel University Urban Health Collaborative, August 2022
Research Team
This study and report was conducted and created by the following people.
- Niamatullah S
- Auchincloss A
- Livengood K
Research to Explore
Culture of Health in Practice: Innovations in Research, Community Engagement, and Action
To Improve Health and Health Care, Volume XIII