Number of children affected by opioid epidemic U.S. 2017

In 2017, over 1.4 million children in the U.S. were living with a parent who had opioid use disorder. This statistic shows the number of children affected by the opioid epidemic in the United States in 2017.

Number of children affected by the opioid epidemic in select ways in the United States in 2017 (in thousands)

Characteristic	Number of children in thousands
Children living with a parent with opioid use disorder	1,435
Children who have been removed from their home and live in foster care or with relatives	325
Children who have had a parent die due to opioid overdose	240
Children who have opioid use disorder themselves or have accidently ingested opioids	170
Children who have a parent in long-term imprisonment due to opioids	10

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Release date

November 2019

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

2017

Age group

0 to 17 years

Supplementary notes

Estimates have been adjusted to account for underreporting of opioid use in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and on death certificates.
To arrive at a nonduplicative count of the number of children affected, estimates have been adjusted to remove doublecounting between categories. The unadjusted numbers are: 280,000 children who have experienced a parent death due to opioids; 15,000 children who have a parent imprisoned for possession of heroin; 353,000 children removed from home; and 194,000 children who have OUD themselves or who accidentally ingested opioids.

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