A lot has been said about how deaths of despair have disproportionately affected the White working class, but at least when it comes to drug-induced deaths Black Americans have caught up and now die at the same rates as their White counterparts. Note that drug-induced causes don’t include alcohol deaths which are tallied separately.
Black death rates had been almost flat until 2014 when they started rising at an accelerating passe, while White rates have stagnated since 2018.
Map of White Deaths
Map of Black Deaths
The South is where White deaths exceed Black death rates.
San Francisco is the deadliest counties for Blacks and according to various media reports 2020 was even deadlier. Thank you Kamala Harris.
Unlike homicides drug-induced deaths follow the same patterns as White ones when grouped by urbanization
