San Francisco Chronicle Overdose Tracker

Live project URL: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2021/san-francisco-drug-overdoses-map/

This repository contains multiple datasets from varying sources relating to San Francisco’s drug overdose epidemic.

The Chronicle primarily relies on the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s monthly reports to track the monthly changes in the number of deaths and the share of those that involve fentanyl. Those reports are the most up-to-date and reliable source of information.

We also use the more detailed data on the circumstances of individual deaths, which we obtained through rolling public records requests, for analysis on the combinations of drugs contributing to the deaths and in other limited instances. Because it offers many more details, it takes the medical examiner’s office longer to verify the information and release it publicly. That means data about more recent deaths are not immediately available.

The California Department of Public Health Overdose Surveillance Dashboard provides the county-level death rates. The Chronicle includes crude death rates, which are death rates based on the entire population of a geography, as opposed to age-adjusted death rates, which are calculated based on a subset of a population, for consistency and accurate comparisons, based on data availability.

We compiled the death rates of some U.S. metro areas, which were selected based on population size, according to U.S. Census data, and data availability. See below for a list of files and more information about them.

Data on San Francisco trends

1. Circumstances of deaths that occurred between January 2020 and December 2021 (2021 data are preliminary and incomplete) File name: od_deaths_detailed_2020_2021.csv Source: San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, obtained through public records requests Update frequency: TBD

2. Accidental overdose deaths by month from January 2020 to November 2021 File name: sf_od_deaths_monthly_2020_2021.csv Source: Compiled based on monthly reports from the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Update frequency: Monthly

3. Cause of death variant (drug type) in deaths that occurred in 2020 File name: sf_od_drug_type_2020.csv Source: Compiled based on individual death data from the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Update frequency: Yearly

4. Race/ethnicity breakdown of accidental overdose deaths in 2020 and 2021 File name: sf_od_race_2020_2021.csv Source: Compiled based on monthly reports from the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Update frequency: Monthly

5. Street Overdose Response Team program data (Updated Dec. 13, 2021) File name: sf_od_sort_nov21.csv Source: San Francisco Department of Public Health Update frequency: TBD

Data on broader trends:

1. Overdose death rates in California counties with 100,000+ population in 2020 File name: ca_od_counties_100k.csv Source: California Department of Public Health Overdose Surveillance Dashboard/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Update frequency: Yearly Note: These death rates are lower than the calculated rates in San Francisco-specific tables because of the differences in how the CDC defines overdose deaths.

2. Overdose death rates in the Bay Area’s nine counties from 2011 to 2020 File name: bay_area_od_counties.csv Source: California Department of Public Health Overdose Surveillance Dashboard/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Update frequency: Yearly Note: These death rates are lower than the calculated rates in San Francisco-specific tables because of the differences in how the CDC defines overdose deaths.

3. Overdose and fentanyl-involved death rates in selected U.S. metro areas in 2020 File name: us_od_metro.csv Source: Medical examiner’s offices or health departments of applicable jurisdictions Update frequency: TBD