In the six-state New England region, drug-related incidents accounted for 5,405 deaths in 2020.  At 36.4 deaths per 100,000 population, the drug-induced death rate in New England was 24.6% higher than the national average.  This gave New England the nation's worst regional drug-induced death rate in 2020.  In New England, death rates from most causes are typically higher in populations in smaller communities and rural areas.  However, in 2020 that was not the case with drug-induced deaths, as the death rate from drug-related incidents in the region's largest metro area populations ran higher than it did in all other urban and rural population groups.  A closer examination of 2020 data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reveals the following details about urban vs. rural drug-induced death rates in New England:

Urban vs. Rural Drug-Induced Death Rates in New England

County Classification	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Large Central Metro	994	2,327,355	42.7
Large Fringe Metro	1,670	5,376,229	31.1
Medium Metro	1,815	4,592,468	39.5
Small Metro	330	819,097	40.3
Micropolitan (Nonmetro)	384	1,087,204	35.3
NonCore (Nonmetro)	212	645,115	32.9
Region	5,405	14,847,468	36.4
Nationally	96,096	329,484,123	29.2

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

Report Period: 2020

States in region:  Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont

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 March 8, 2023