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What's New in Our Tool

Virginia Opioid Cost Data Tool Updates

The text "Opioid Data: Financial Impact" layered on U.S. dollar bill scattered with pills

Our site's previous imagery juxtaposed currency with substances in pill form. With our 2025 release, the refreshed look and feel now emphasize the site's rich data visualizations.

This tool was previously known as Cost of Addiction and has also been frequently referred to as the Opioid Cost Calculator.

This latest iteration builds on the previous versions and is release 3.0. We have renamed the tool to reflect our project’s evolving ethos – and especially everything we have learned from the people who are using these data to fund lifesaving work.

We created this tool to show how better opioid outcomes would improve every single community’s quality of life. Through a series of conversations with audiences across Virginia, we have learned about the meaningful ways in which people use these data, what worked well about the tool, and where the tool could be improved. The updates address the following feedback:

  1. Prioritize the lives of those most impacted within the narrative.
  2. Update the data to latest available numbers.
  3. Streamline content flow and design.
  4. Refine our visuals for accuracy and effectiveness.

Below are snapshots of selected new features in this release.

Payor Breakdown by Locality Table, broken down by families/businesses, federal government, and state/local government
The following definition for "recover" is shown in a tooltip: "achieve positive changes in quality of life. These changes may involve switching to a safer substance, abstaining from use, or another choice that the person who uses drugs decides would help them live well and realize their goals."
NEW

Clearer Language

Understand key concepts in context with tooltips subtly woven throughout our story and visualizations. These explanations also communicate the human-centered guiding principles behind our work.

Choropleth map of Virginia, with the following annotations: "Places with the highest opioid death rates also had among the highest all-sector economic costs per person" and "In metro areas with high rates of unhealthy opioid use, communities faced high total and per-person economic costs."
NEW

Relevant Context

Find meaningful insights in our new visualizations, with:

  • Annotations on the map
  • Narrative summary takeaways
  • Breakdowns of local cost shares by payer
Horizonal stacked bar chart titled "Opioid Epidemic Costs by Sector for Virginia in 2023," listed as a total of $5.2B across lost labor ($3.41B), Health Care ($1.07B), Child-Related ($564M), and a much-smaller remaining sector (Criminal Justice).
NEW

Streamlined Data Visualizations

Conceptualize the big picture at a glance with our simplified and more concise visualizations – without losing key details.

Jitter Plot comparing opioid costs between neighbors. Waynesboro City is listed as an example, with All-Sector Costs just above the state average at $645 per person, and nearly $15M total cost.
NEW

Localized Views

Spotlight your locality and how it compares with neighboring cities and counties.

Economic benefit statistics, listed as: 18:1 for substance use prevention, 7:1 for syringe services programs, 21:1 for overdose prevention centers, and 12:1 for substance use treatment programs
NEW

Credible ROI Statistics

Inspire more decision-makers’ support for evidence-based strategies using trusted statistics on economic return on investment (ROI).

Data page with two buttons shown to download raw data from 2023 and 2021, as well as a list of ethical considerations, subtitled, "A Starting Point for Deeper Inquiry"
NEW

More Transparency in Methods

Skim our streamlined technical brief for just the basics you need or delve deeper into the document to investigate more complex questions.

Looking for help with our updated website?

We’d love to hear from you. Want to share insights? See something missing? Want something that isn’t included? We welcome all feedback. Please reach out to us at societyhealth@vcu.edu with any questions or comments. This tool is meant to be for all audiences.