Health

How many drug overdose deaths happen every year in Rhode Island?

Data updated July 19, 2024
424 overdose deaths in 2022. That means that for every 100,000 people living in Rhode Island, 39 died of drug overdose. This was the second highest drug overdose death rate in the state since data from 1999 became available.
Showing data for
In 2022,

39

per 100,000 people died of overdoses
In 2022,

424

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, Rhode Island had a drug overdose death rate higher than the US rate overall, nearly 17% higher. The drug overdose death rate in Rhode Island increased in 16 of the last 23 years for which data is available. The overdose death rate increased 27% since 2018 and 70% since 2013.

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

Drug-involved overdose deaths in Rhode Island, 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 72% of total overdose deaths in Rhode Island. The rates of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids increased 9.8 times between 2013 and 2022. For cocaine, the rates increased 7.9 times between 2000 and 2022.

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

Drug-involved overdose deaths in Rhode Island, 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 Rhode Island ranged from 25 per 100,000 in Washington County to 43 per 100,000 in Providence 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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