Rural counties saw record Covid-19 deaths in Jan., keeping rural rate ahead of urban rate; see latest county-level data

Coronavirus infection rates, Jan. 24-30
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

In the deadliest month of the pandemic for both metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties, the rural new death rate continued to outstrip the metro rate. Rural counties had 16,332 total Covid deaths in January—an average of 527 per day—up from 16,179 in December.

"Covid-related deaths were higher at the start of January and have relented in the last two weeks. But after a 13 percent drop in deaths two weeks ago, rural deaths only dropped 1% last week," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. During the week of Jan. 24-30, rural counties averaged 7.7 new Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 residents, 20% higher than the urban rate of 6.4. The weekly rate of new Covid-19 deaths in rural America has surpassed the urban rate for more than five months.

"The number of new infections has also fallen in the second half of January. New infections dropped 17% last week in rural counties, to a total of 122,278, compared to 148,302 new cases two weeks ago," Murphy and Marema report. Since March, nearly 68,000 rural Americans have died from Covid-19. Click here for more data and in-depth analysis from the Yonder, including regional trends and an interactive map with the latest county-level data.