Deaths of Despair by Demographic Characteristics

Deaths of despair include deaths related to drugs, alcohol and suicide. These deaths can result from unaddressed or unmanaged behavioral health concerns, emphasizing the need for adequate and early access to behavioral health services for all residents, and especially the populations shown here who are most vulnerable. This chart displays the rates for deaths of despair per 100,000 population for the 14-county Finger Lakes region in 2020-2022 by the following demographic characteristics: sex, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. There are notable disparities in death rates for males, Black non-Latino residents, and residents who reside in low socioeconomic status ZIP codes. Death rates for Latino residents were also higher than the overall regional rate.

Methodology note: The SES index ranking was developed by Common Ground Health and calculated using a variety of socioeconomic indicators from the American Community Survey including average income, poverty rates, education levels, housing value, and homeownership. Each ZIP code is assigned a socioeconomic (SES) index ranking from 1 to 5. The lower SES ZIP codes tend to have lower average income, higher poverty rates, lower prevalence of college degrees, etc.