Overdose deaths by region of King County

What this dataset measures

Built to test whether a growing share of King County's overdose deaths happen among people living in subsidized and supportive housing, using the county's own counts for the same January 1 to November 5 window each year so that 2026 can be compared with earlier years.

Geography

King County, Washington, Seattle, Washington, Washington, United States

Unit of observation

Count of overdose deaths for a year (or January 1-November 5 of a year), living situation or region

Update cadence

One-time release; the Medical Examiner dashboard updates daily

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

Overdose deaths by region of King County

Deaths by the region where the death occurred.

Unit of observation: Year and region

deaths-by-region.csv text/csv · 838 bytes

All 44 rows 4 columns Download the file

All 44 rows

year	region	deaths_jan1_nov5 deaths	deaths_full_year deaths
2016	Seattle	144	160
2016	South	97	118
2016	East	36	45
2016	North	10	11
2017	Seattle	160	183
2017	South	109	127
2017	East	30	38
2017	North	12	14
2018	Seattle	165	190
2018	South	124	144
2018	East	42	47
2018	North	11	14
2019	Seattle	170	200
2019	South	125	150
2019	East	44	51
2019	North	20	24
2020	Seattle	188	220
2020	South	162	190
2020	East	54	62
2020	North	14	22
2021	Seattle	256	311
2021	South	250	283
2021	East	63	73
2021	North	17	20
2022	Seattle	433	559
2022	South	241	306
2022	East	65	79
2022	North	35	38
2023	Seattle	668	763
2023	South	359	414
2023	East	77	89
2023	North	33	37
2024	Seattle	486	577
2024	South	291	357
2024	East	57	71
2024	North	21	24
2025	Seattle	400	478
2025	South	292	322
2025	East	57	65
2025	North	36	38
2026	Seattle	380	—
2026	South	203	—
2026	East	48	—
2026	North	26	—

4 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
year	integer	Calendar year.	—	observed
region	string	Seattle, South, East or North King County.	—	observed
deaths_jan1_nov5	integer	Deaths January 1-November 5.	deaths	observed
deaths_full_year	integer	Full-year deaths; empty for 2026.	deaths	observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• build_housing_od.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 10 KB (10,272 bytes)

  Node.js script that assembles the tables from the dashboard pulls and computes every saved analysis.

Sources

1. Public Health - Seattle & King County / King County Medical Examiner's Office Overdose death counts by year, presumed living situation and region (place of death)

   Retrieved November 6, 2026. Public government data. Counts are public government statistics; FactHub redistributes the aggregated counts it read.

   Reliability: Government. The county Medical Examiner investigates every suspected overdose death in King County; investigators record each person's presumed living situation. The county runs and funds much of the housing in the 'housing service site' category.

2. Public Health - Seattle & King County, Methods Report: Documentation and Analysis of Fatal Overdose Data Definitions of the living-situation categories and their limits

   Retrieved November 6, 2026. Public government document. Linked, not redistributed.

   Reliability: Government. The county health department's own description of how the dashboard's categories are assigned, including its warning that some categories may be inconsistently applied.

3. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2007-2025 Housing Inventory Count by CoC Permanent supportive housing and other permanent housing beds for Seattle/King County (WA-500)

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain.

   Reliability: Government. A one-night inventory of beds reported each year by the local homelessness system to HUD; it counts beds, not occupants, and excludes most income-restricted and recovery housing.

4. CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts (VSRR) 12-month-ending overdose death counts for the United States and Washington (December of each year)

   Retrieved November 6, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain.

   Reliability: Government. Counts from death certificates by state of residence; recent months are provisional and adjusted for reporting delays.

5. CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Provisional County-Level Drug Overdose Death Counts 12-month-ending overdose deaths of King County residents

   Retrieved November 6, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain.

   Reliability: Government. Provisional death-certificate counts by county of residence; used here only as a cross-check of the Medical Examiner's place-of-death counts.

License: FactHub's selection, cleaning and combined tables are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source data keeps the terms listed above (terms).

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Counts were read from the King County Medical Examiner's public overdose dashboard on November 6, 2026 (filters: year, presumed living situation, region, date of death January 1-November 5). The build script that assembles the tables and computes every saved analysis is included as an artifact. Dashboard counts for recent months change as toxicology results arrive, so a later pull will differ slightly.

• The Medical Examiner's 'housing service site' category combines permanent supportive housing, income-restricted (subsidized) apartments and recovery housing; it cannot be split with public data.
• The living-situation category describes where the person lived, as investigators presumed it, not necessarily where they died.
• 2026 counts run through November 5 and include probable overdoses still awaiting toxicology; late-reported deaths will raise them somewhat.
• The share of deaths with an unknown living situation fell from about 9% in 2019 to under 1% in 2024-2025, then rose to 4.6% of 2026 deaths so far; shares are computed among deaths with a known living situation, and a sensitivity analysis shows the range.
• There is no public count of people living in subsidized and supportive housing, so these are counts and shares, not death rates; HUD bed counts cover only part of the housing in the category.
• Medical Examiner counts are by place of death; CDC counts are by place of residence, so King County figures from the two sources differ slightly.