The culprit is “deaths of despair” such as drug overdoses, suicide, and liver disease. Compared to Gen X’ers at the same age in 1999, 25- to 34-year-old Millennials in 2019 were nearly six times as likely to die from a drug overdose, mostly due to opioids. Suicide rates in this age group increased 38%, and fatal liver disease more than doubled (see Figure 5.72).
