Pennsylvania counties received over $85 million in opioid settlement payments for 2022, with around $2 million going to Chester County, write Ed Mahon and Kate Giammarise for WHYY.

A Spotlight PA analysis looked at which counties are receiving the most money per resident to be able to better respond to an epidemic that is killing thousands of people in Pennsylvania each year.

Statewide, payments for general county government and county district attorney offices were around $6.50 per resident in 2022.

According to the analysis, Chester County, with a population of 545,823, received general payments of $2,024,181 and district attorney payments of $375,541. That comes out to $4.40 per resident.

That puts Chester County on the lower end based on the average amount of payment per resident. Overall, payments varied greatly by county, ranging from $1.13 per resident in Centre County to $23.23 per resident in Cameron County.

According to Brett Hambright, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, the formula that is used to calculate payments “considers the level of need in the respective counties, and population does not necessarily correlate with biggest need.”

Read more about Chester County’s opioid settlement payments in WHYY.

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