In the five-state Rocky Mountain region of the U.S., drug-induced causes, mostly overdoses, accounted for 2,765 deaths in 2020.  Relative to population size, at 22.0 deaths per 100,000 population, the drug-induced death rate in the region was almost 25% below the national average.  Statistically, this gave the Rocky Mountain region the third-lowest regional drug-induced death rate in the U.S. in 2020.  In a pattern seen elsewhere in the U.S., the drug-induced death rate in the region's largest urban population centers ran noticeably higher than in its smaller metro and rural populations.  This is in contrast to the all-cause death rate, which typically runs lower in larger metro areas than in smaller metro and rural populations.  A deeper dive into data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reveals the following details about urban vs. rural drug-induced death rates in the Rocky Mountain region:

Urban vs. Rural Drug-Induced Death Rates in the Rocky Mountain Region

County Classification	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Large Central Metro	586	1,901,055	30.8
Large Fringe Metro	532	2,330,205	22.8
Medium Metro	818	3,900,314	21.0
Small Metro	356	1,669,221	21.3
Micropolitan (Nonmetro)	262	1,616,653	16.2
NonCore (Nonmetro)	211	1,129,968	18.7
Region	2,765	12,547,416	22.0
Nationally	96,096	329,484,123	29.2

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

Report Period: 2020

States in region:  Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming

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 25, 2023