In excess of 96,000 drug-induced deaths were recorded in the United States in 2020.  More than 95% of those fatalities were attributable to drug overdoses. Nationally, in 2020 the U.S. recorded approximately 29.2 drug-induced deaths per 100,000 population.  By comparison, in 2019 the U.S. suffered about 74,500 drug-related deaths, which yielded a drug-induced death rate of 22.7 per 100,000 population.  The year-over-year jump in U.S. drug-induced death statistics was a continuation of a negative trend that goes back more than twenty years.  In 2020 the seven-state Great Plains region recorded 4,542 drug-induced deaths, giving the region a collective drug-induced death rate of 21.1 such deaths per 100,000 population.  The region's collective drug-induced death rate was nearly 28% below the national average in 2020 as only one state in the region, Missouri, incurred a drug-induced death rate that was worse than the national average.  A closer study of data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics provides the following details about drug-induced death rates in the Great Plains region:

Drug-Induced Death Rates in the Great Plains Region

State	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Iowa	450	3,163,561	14.2
Kansas	521	2,913,805	17.9
Minnesota	1,173	5,657,342	20.7
Missouri	1,951	6,151,548	31.7
Nebraska	237	1,937,552	12.2
North Dakota	124	765,309	16.2
South Dakota	86	892,717	9.6
Region	4,542	21,481,834	21.1
U.S. Totals	96,096	329,484,123	29.2

(*) number of drug-induced deaths (intentional and unintentional) per 100,000 population

Report Period: 2020

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2020, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on October 31, 2022