In 2020, drug-related incidents accounted for nearly 15,900 deaths in the five-state Great Lakes region.  Relative to the size of its population, the number of drug-induced deaths per 100,000 population in the region was more than 16% higher than the national average.  This gave the Great Lakes region the third-highest regional drug-induced death rate in the United States in 2020.   Generally speaking, in the Great Lakes region and throughout the U.S., higher death rates from all causes are found in populations in smaller communities and rural areas.  That generalization does not, however, apply to deaths from drug-related incidents as in the Great Lakes region, as throughout much of the U.S., the drug-induced death rate is lower among population groups in smaller communities and rural areas.  Further examination of data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reveals the following details about urban vs. rural drug-induced death rates in the Great Lakes region:

Urban vs. Rural Drug-Induced Death Rates in the Great Lakes Region

County Classification	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Large Central Metro	5,763	12,789,306	45.1
Large Fringe Metro	3,509	12,712,841	27.6
Medium Metro	2,736	7,561,867	36.2
Small Metro	1,532	5,248,208	29.2
Micropolitan (Nonmetro)	1,690	5,651,494	29.9
NonCore (Nonmetro)	661	2,871,194	23.0
Region	15,891	46,834,910	33.9
Nationally	96,096	329,484,123	29.2

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

Report Period: 2020

States in region:  Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin

See the 2013 NCHS Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for additional information on population categories, including a map of which U.S. counties fall in which categories.

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 February 22, 2023