March 30,  2023

California: A State Analysis

This map breaks down the total number of fentanyl deaths in 2021 by state. The states with the highest number of fentanyl deaths are dark blue.

Summary

  • California had the highest total number of synthetic opioid (fentanyl) fatalities in 2021, surpassing Florida and Ohio for the first time, with a total of 6,253 deaths in 2021.

  • In six years, the number of synthetic opioid (fentanyl) deaths increased seven-fold across the United States, or by 637%. In California the number of these deaths has increased by 2,631%, or 27 fold which is nearly 4x the national rate of growth during that same period.

  • The percentage of total fentanyl deaths among people ages 15 to 24 in 2021 was significantly higher in California than in the overall United States.

    • Over 13% of all fentanyl deaths in California impacted people ages 15 to 24, whereas only 8% of these deaths affected this demographic on a national scale.

    • All of the findings of this report were taken directly from the CDC Wonder database mid February 2023. Calendar year 2021 data is the most recent full year data available from the CDC, so that is the data used for this report - meaning deaths occurring from January 2021 through December 2021. All of our UCD and MCD selections were based on CDC recommendations and the data we present in our reports adheres to CDC standards.

    California Data

    • In order to ascertain the total number of fentanyl deaths in California - we used the “Provisional Multiple Cause of Death Data” request form and filtered the results by “Year,” “underlying cause of death (UCD) - Drug/Alcohol Induced” and “multiple cause of death (MCD) - ICD-10 113 Cause List.”

      • First we selected our “Occurrence State” - California

      • Then we selected our “Time Period of Death” - ie. 2021 or 2018; 2019; 2020; 2021 to make yearly comparisons or add up a multi-year total

      • Finally, we selected “Drug-induced causes” under the section entitled, “Select underlying cause of death,” and code T40.4 (Other Synthetic Narcotics) after clicking the MCD - ICD-10 Codes option under the “Select multiple cause of death” section.

    • When filtering fatalities by age - we simply added an additional filter at the top of the form “Singe-Year Ages” or “Ten Year Age Group” and selected our chosen age range under the “select demographics” section.

    • Fatality data for all years preceding 2018 was gathered using CDC Wonder’s “Current Final Multiple Cause of Death Data” request form and replicating the process outlined above. However, it should be noted that the forms within this category do not distinguish between occurrence vs. resident states and only allows one to filter by “State.”

    Other State Data

    • When making comparisons between California and other individual states we simply replicated the method outlined above, with a few minor differences.

      • Added “Occurrence State” to the “group by” section at the top of the form (or “State” more generally when looking at years preceding 2018) - and intentionally put it before every other variable so it would be in the leftmost column of our table

      • Highlighted the states we wanted to focus on in the “Occurrence States” section

    United States Data

    • When making comparisons between California and the United States overall we simply replicated the methods outlined in the previous section but did not select a “resident” or “occurrence” state.

    Percentage & Percent Increase Calculations

    • In order to contextualize the data, we calculated the percent increase of deaths during a given time period; the percentage of fentanyl deaths that fell among a given age group in California vs. in the United States overall; and the total number of fentanyl deaths.

    • To calculate the percentage of synthetic opioid (fentanyl) deaths in California among people 15 to 24 in 2021, for example, we divided the number of fentanyl deaths for this age group by the total number of synthetic opioid (fentanyl) deaths in California in 2021 and multiplied the result by 100.

      • Percentages allow us to better understand the underlying cause of synthetic opioid deaths. For example, while less than one percent of all synthetic opioid (fentanyl) deaths were attributed to suicide last year, over 16% of all synthetic opioid (fentanyl) deaths among Americans 75 to 84 were attributed to suicide.

    • To calculate the percentage increase from 2019 to 2021, for example, we first found the “numerical increase.” To do this we subtracted the number of synthetic opioid (fentanyl) deaths in California in 2019 from the total number of synthetic opioid (fentanyl) deaths in California in 2021. We then divided the numerical increase by the number of deaths in 2019 and multiplied our answer by 100.

  • Calendar Year Totals - Links

    Ten Year Age Totals - Links