Rural Covid-19 vaccination rate grew little in April and May

Coronavirus vaccination rates as of May 26, 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.

The rate of new coronavirus vaccinations in rural counties "grew by 0.4 percentage points from the last week of April to the last week of May. The rate grew by about that same amount from March to April," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. "The pace of new vaccinations has slowed in both rural and metropolitan counties over the past several months. From December 2021 to January 2022, the rural vaccination rate grew by nearly 1.7 percentage points and the metropolitan rate grew by 2.2 points. As of May 26, 51% of the total rural population was completely vaccinated against Covid-19. In metropolitan counties, that rate is 65.4%."

Only 23.2% of people in rural U.S. counties have had at least one coronavirus booster shot, compared to 30.7% of the metro population, Murphy and Marema report.