Health

How many drug overdose deaths happen every year in Kentucky?

Data updated July 19, 2024
2,271 overdose deaths in 2022. This means that 50 out of every 100,000 people in Kentucky died of a drug overdose. This was the second highest the drug overdose death rate had been in the state since data from 1999 became available.
Showing data for
In 2022,

50

per 100,000 people died of overdoses
In 2022,

2.3K

people died of overdoses
Unadjusted data about the nation is a useful starting point, but age-adjusted data tells a more complete story. Age-adjusting accounts for differences in age distributions across populations, which is crucial when comparing health outcomes since age is a major risk factor for many conditions. This adjustment enables fairer comparisons of mortality rates between different groups or over time. The rest of the data on this page is age-adjusted.
In 2022, Kentucky had a drug overdose death rate higher than the US rate overall, nearly 63% higher. The drug overdose death rate in Kentucky has increased in 17 of the last 23 years for which data is available. The overdose death rate has increased 72% since 2018 and has risen 2.2 times since 2013.

In 2022, Kentucky had a drug overdose death rate higher than the US rate.

Drug-involved overdose deaths in Kentucky, age-adjusted rate per 100,000 people

The rise in drug overdose deaths nationally has been due to growing use of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, however, this may vary by state. In 2022, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were involved in more overdose deaths than any other drug, making up 71% of total overdose deaths in Kentucky. The rates of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl and methamphetamine increased 55 times and 34.6 times, respectively, between 2002 and 2022 for fentanyl and between 2011 and 2022 for methamphetamine.

In 2022, fentanyl was involved in more overdose deaths than any other drug.

Drug-involved overdose deaths in Kentucky, age-adjusted rate per 100,000 people

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Although drug overdose deaths are on the rise, they affect geographic areas differently. In 2022, the death rate for overdoses in Kentucky ranged from 23 per 100,000 in Warren County to 164 per 100,000 in Bath County.
Occasionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will mark data as either suppressed or unreliable. Suppression occurs when data does not meet confidentiality requirements. As a result, data may not be available for every county in this state. Age-adjusted data is also not available at the county level. County-level tables reflect the most recent year of available data.

Drug-involved overdose deaths per 100,000 people (2022)

Drug-involved overdose deaths per 100,000 people (2022)

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