South Carolina is a leading state for alcohol and drug-related deaths.

The victims are mostly age 20 to 55 years old.

The highest premature death rates were here and in other southeastern and southwestern states – West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, New Mexico, Louisiana and Tennessee.

No specific figures were available for such deaths in Lexington County.

10 states with the lowest probability of premature death among this age group were Minnesota, California, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Hawaii.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this paints a grim picture of worsening health trends across the nation as the opioid epidemic and progress against heart disease hurt life expectancy.

Among adults age 25-44, death rates rose 21% for white and black adults and 13% for Hispanic adults

Hispanics have long experienced lower death rates than blacks or whites but overdose deaths are hitting younger Hispanics.

“People are just now starting to recognize that the opioid epidemic is not just a white phenomenon,” said Andrew Fenelon of the University of Maryland who has studied health and life expectancy for Hispanics.

Overall death rates among blacks, whites and Hispanics have fallen slowly in recent years with rates rising among younger adults.

Across all ages, death rates have declined.

While the death rate for Hispanics fell 2% each year between 2000 and 2011, that slowed to less than 1% from 2011 to 2017, according to the CDC.

The death-rate decline also slowed for black Americans during those years but barely budged for whites.

Most young victims died of injuries, including drug overdoses and suicides.

Homicides rose as did alcohol-related deaths.