Rural coronavirus vaccination rate passes 50%, but it's still 14 percentage points below the urban rate

Coronavirus vaccination rates as of March 17, compared to national average and adjusted to account for vaccinations not assigned to a county. Map by The Daily Yonder; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

"Nearly a year after Covid-19 vaccines became broadly available to all adults in the United States, just over half of the total rural population is completely vaccinated," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. "As of March 17, 50.1% of the nation’s rural population had completed a Covid-19 vaccination regimen, according to a Daily Yonder analysis." The metropolitan rate is 64.2%, just under 14 percentage points higher.

Four states have higher vaccination rates in rural counties than in metro counties: Alaska, Arizona, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Massachusetts has more than 80% of its rural population vaccinated, the highest rural rate of any state, Murphy and Marema report.

Click here for more charts, regional analysis, and county-level interactive maps from the Yonder.