Question: Since COVID began, which states have been hit the hardest?
Answer: “Hit the hardest” could mean a variety of things, but for the purpose of this answer, I’m going to define it as cases per every 100,000 people in each state’s population. According to CDC’s COVID Tracker, the five states who have suffered the highest cases/population are (Figure 1):
- North Dakota (13,190 cases / 100,000)
- South Dakota (12,841 cases / 100,000)
- Rhode Island (12,175 cases / 100,000)
- Utah (11,700 cases / 100,000)
- Tennessee (11,479 cases / 100,000)
For comparison, the five states who have experienced the lowest cases/population are:
- Hawaii (1,912 cases / 100,000)
- Vermont (2,596 cases / 100,000)
- Maine (3,426 cases/ 100,000)
- Oregon (3,735 cases / 100,000)
- Washington (4,540 cases / 100,000)
Figure 1. Total COVID Cases per 100,000 by State/Territory (from CDC)
[…] As you can see, four of the five states with the lowest number of deaths/population are also among yesterday’s list of states with the lowest number of cases/population. Makes sense: fewer cases= fewer deaths. […]