In the twelve-state Southeastern U.S., drug-related incidents accounted for just over 28,000 deaths in 2020.  Relative to the size of its population, the number of drug-induced deaths per 100,000 population in the region was 12.3% higher than the national average.  This gave the U.S. Southeast the fourth-highest regional drug-induced death rate in 2020.   In the Southeastern U.S. much higher death rates from all causes are typically found in populations in smaller communities and rural areas.  However, that generalization did not apply in 2020 to drug-induced deaths as the death rate from drug-related incidents ran lower in the Southeast among population groups in smaller communities and rural areas than it did in large central metro areas.  A closer study of data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reveals the following about urban vs. rural drug-induced death rates in the Southeastern U.S.:

Urban vs. Rural Drug-Induced Death Rates in the Southeastern U.S.

County Classification	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Large Central Metro	5,472	15,659,372	34.9
Large Fringe Metro	6,444	21,574,094	29.9
Medium Metro	8,751	23,618,936	37.1
Small Metro	2,821	9,583,292	29.4
Micropolitan (Nonmetro)	2,514	8,121,872	31.0
NonCore (Nonmetro)	2,034	7,008,219	29.0
Region	28,036	85,565,785	32.8
Nationally	96,096	329,484,123	29.2

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

Report Period: 2020

States in region:  Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia

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 26, 2023