4 ms·

Here's the interactive version: http://vizhub.healthdata.org/subnational/usa http://vizhub.healthdata.org/subnational/usa

• AimHere 10y ago
  You can play with this map to see where the changes are biggest and smallest. Interestingly, the strip from Maryland to Georgia - which normally stands out in US political maps, due to issues of slavery and race - stands out as being one big area where deaths due to drugs or substance abuse didn't increase much at all, annually, from a relatively low start.
• zwtaylor 10y ago
  Interesting to see the dramatic rise in deaths related to substance abuse from 1996 onwards, the year Purdue Pharma introduced Oxycontin. It's especially glaring in the most impoverished parts of Appalachia.
• blauditore 10y ago
  Is there any obvious reason for the higher death rate in the "bible belt"? One thing I could imagine is rural exodus, leaving a higher percentage of old people.
  • maxerickson 10y ago
    Poverty.
  • justinlaster 10y ago
    Poverty combined with boredom. And from my personal experience, a complete unwillingness to discuss such problems (i.e, "Not my family").