Many North Carolina counties with higher-than-average opioid prescription rates also have higher-than-average rates of grandparents raising grandchildren. Carolina Demography looked at 2017 data for their study. Statewide, 1.6% of grandparents care for their grandchildren, above the national average of 1.3%. The two counties with the highest rate of opioid prescriptions per resident… Scotland and Columbus counties… also had the 4th and 6th highest rates of grandparents as primary caregivers. Of the top ten counties for high opioid prescription rates, seven had above-average rates of grandparents as primary caregivers. Carolina Demography noted that of the ten counties with the lowest prescription opioid rates, five had above-state-average rates of grandparents as caregivers. It also said there can be a variety of reasons why grandparents care for their grandchildren.