Time series · overdose-deaths

Drug overdose deaths by state and drug

CDC's provisional count of drug overdose deaths in the 12 months ending each month, for every state and the US since 2015, by drug: all drugs, opioids, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, psychostimulants such as methamphetamine, and more, with CDC's prediction of the final count.

Updates
Monthly
Coverage
—
Current version
—
Last published
—
Validation
—
License
US Government work
Commercial use
Allowed

Chart

Drug overdose deaths by state and drug

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Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Show the data as a table

The table appears once the data has loaded.

Use the API

Each series and location is its own small file. The examples follow the series and location picked above. See the docs for versions, caching and errors.

curl

# One series for one place (.json or .csv)
curl -s "https://api.healthdata.dev/v1/overdose-deaths/all-drugs/usa.json"

# Every series and place in one file
curl -sO "https://api.healthdata.dev/v1/overdose-deaths/download/overdose-deaths.csv"

Python (polars)

import polars as pl

# One series for one place
df = pl.read_csv("https://api.healthdata.dev/v1/overdose-deaths/all-drugs/usa.csv")

# Every series and place, with series and location columns
everything = pl.read_parquet("https://api.healthdata.dev/v1/overdose-deaths/download/overdose-deaths.parquet")

JavaScript

const res = await fetch("https://api.healthdata.dev/v1/overdose-deaths/all-drugs/usa.json");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error((await res.json()).detail); // errors are problem+json
const { meta, data } = await res.json();
console.log(meta.location_name, data.at(-1)); // { date, value, ... }

Downloads

The whole dataset in one file, with series and location columns. Parquet keeps the column types and is much smaller.

Schema and series

Each series file has these columns. The bulk downloads add series and location columns in front.

Column Type Unit Can be empty Description
date month (YYYY-MM) — no Last month of the 12-month period
deaths integer deaths yes Reported deaths in the 12 months ending this month; null where CDC withholds the count
predicted_deaths integer deaths yes CDC's predicted final count, adjusting for reports still to come
percent_complete number % yes Percent of records CDC judges complete for the period
percent_pending number % yes Percent of records still pending investigation
pct_drugs_specified number % yes Percent of overdose death records that name at least one drug
suppressed true / false — no True where the count is under 10 and withheld
underreported true / false — no True where CDC flags the count as underreported because data are incomplete

Series

Series id Name
all-drugs All drug overdose deaths
opioids Opioids (T40.0-T40.4, T40.6)
synthetic-opioids Synthetic opioids other than methadone, mainly fentanyl (T40.4)
heroin Heroin (T40.1)
natural-opioids Natural and semi-synthetic opioids, such as oxycodone (T40.2)
methadone Methadone (T40.3)
natural-opioids-methadone Natural and semi-synthetic opioids and methadone (T40.2, T40.3)
all-opioids-excl-heroin Natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic opioids and methadone (T40.2-T40.4)
cocaine Cocaine (T40.5)
psychostimulants Psychostimulants with abuse potential, mainly methamphetamine (T43.6)
all-causes Deaths from all causes

Locations

Covers all 57 US states and equivalents (ids: us- plus the USPS code (us-ca, us-dc)); 1 more named place.

Location id Name
usa United States

Place names come from the shared location registry; see Sources.

Source and license

Source
NCHS Vital Statistics Rapid Release, Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts (data.cdc.gov xkb8-kh2a)
Publisher
CDC National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
License
US Government work (public domain in the United States) (LicenseRef-US-Government-Work)
Commercial use
Allowed

Credit the source with this exact text:

Ahmad FB, Cisewski JA, Rossen LM, Sutton P. Provisional drug overdose death counts. National Center for Health Statistics. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm

Checked every 2 days. If the source hasn't changed in 2 months, the status page flags it as stale.

Endpoints

Every URL for this dataset. To pin the current version, put it after the id: /v1/overdose-deaths@<version>. The API reference describes each response.

What URL
Metadata: version, coverage, downloads, validation /v1/overdose-deaths
Versions and monthly snapshots /v1/overdose-deaths/versions
Series and locations /v1/overdose-deaths/locations
All drug overdose deaths (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/all-drugs/{location}.json
All drug overdose deaths (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/all-drugs/{location}.csv
Opioids (T40.0-T40.4, T40.6) (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/opioids/{location}.json
Opioids (T40.0-T40.4, T40.6) (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/opioids/{location}.csv
Synthetic opioids other than methadone, mainly fentanyl (T40.4) (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/synthetic-opioids/{location}.json
Synthetic opioids other than methadone, mainly fentanyl (T40.4) (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/synthetic-opioids/{location}.csv
Heroin (T40.1) (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/heroin/{location}.json
Heroin (T40.1) (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/heroin/{location}.csv
Natural and semi-synthetic opioids, such as oxycodone (T40.2) (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/natural-opioids/{location}.json
Natural and semi-synthetic opioids, such as oxycodone (T40.2) (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/natural-opioids/{location}.csv
Methadone (T40.3) (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/methadone/{location}.json
Methadone (T40.3) (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/methadone/{location}.csv
Natural and semi-synthetic opioids and methadone (T40.2, T40.3) (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/natural-opioids-methadone/{location}.json
Natural and semi-synthetic opioids and methadone (T40.2, T40.3) (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/natural-opioids-methadone/{location}.csv
Natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic opioids and methadone (T40.2-T40.4) (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/all-opioids-excl-heroin/{location}.json
Natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic opioids and methadone (T40.2-T40.4) (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/all-opioids-excl-heroin/{location}.csv
Cocaine (T40.5) (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/cocaine/{location}.json
Cocaine (T40.5) (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/cocaine/{location}.csv
Psychostimulants with abuse potential, mainly methamphetamine (T43.6) (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/psychostimulants/{location}.json
Psychostimulants with abuse potential, mainly methamphetamine (T43.6) (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/psychostimulants/{location}.csv
Deaths from all causes (JSON) /v1/overdose-deaths/all-causes/{location}.json
Deaths from all causes (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/all-causes/{location}.csv
Whole dataset (CSV) /v1/overdose-deaths/download/overdose-deaths.csv
Whole dataset (Parquet) /v1/overdose-deaths/download/overdose-deaths.parquet