The overdose wave across ages
Which age groups saw the largest changes in overdose mortality?
Rows: Age · Columns: Year
| Age | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| 15-24 | 7.7 | 8.2 | 8.6 | 8.0 | 8.3 | 8.6 | 9.7 | 12.4 | 12.6 | 10.8 |
| 25-34 | 17.2 | 18.4 | 20.2 | 20.1 | 20.9 | 23.1 | 26.9 | 34.6 | 38.4 | 35.5 |
| 35-44 | 20.5 | 20.8 | 22.5 | 22.1 | 23.0 | 25.0 | 28.3 | 35.0 | 39.0 | 38.3 |
| 45-54 | 25.4 | 25.1 | 26.7 | 26.9 | 27.5 | 28.2 | 30.0 | 34.5 | 37.7 | 35.3 |
| 55-64 | 13.7 | 15.0 | 15.9 | 16.6 | 19.2 | 20.3 | 21.8 | 25.6 | 28.0 | 28.3 |
| 65-74 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 5.4 | 5.8 | 6.4 | 6.9 | 7.2 | 8.2 | 9.2 | 10.2 |
| 75-84 | 3.8 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.9 |
| 85+ | 4.4 | 4.7 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.1 | 4.4 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.8 |
0
40— Missing or suppressed
Cells show crude age-specific death rates per 100,000, not percentages or numbers of deaths. Both periods use the same 0–40 scale.
Crude rates per 100,000 within each age group, all drug overdose deaths.
NCHS, "Drug overdose death rates, by drug type, sex, age, race, and Hispanic origin: United States" (data.cdc.gov 95ax-ymtc)
Reading notes
Rates are crude deaths per 100,000 within age group, not counts. Both decade views share the same scale.
Source & method
Unchanged public figure capture; original meta.sources, derivation and verification checks retained. No model refitting or fabricated uncertainty.
Capture provenance
- Source repository / file
- picturing-american-health / public/figdata/f0503-age-heatmap.json
- Revision
- e13698bac543141b21d62cb9d5c7dddc99aef834
- Captured
- 2026-09-11
- Source SHA-256
- 2ef0c993308a35abfbd241cbfe9f23f412f22d5b8f478d5be1acfdb48bd4879c
- Reuse note
- Aggregated public-facing example from the user-owned source repository. Upstream attribution retained; no new license asserted.
