Minnesota Deaths, 2000–2017

This recent Star Tribune graph on deaths from suicide, alcohol, and opioids in Minnesota may not be a surprise exactly, but still. Wow.

• Suicide: up 78 percent.
• Alcohol-related: Just about exactly doubled.
• Opioid overdoses: Up more than 680 percent.

Let's add another set of numbers to put those into some perspective:

Deaths from motor vehicles are down from 625 in 2000 to 358 in 2017, a 43 percent decrease. It's now lower than the number of deaths from opioids, and since about 2010 it's been lower than the number of deaths from suicide back in the early 2000s.


In fact, the motor vehicle and the suicide death numbers have basically traded places since the millennium.