To date, 88,027,926 Americans are confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19 — and over 1 million have died as a result. On a per capita basis, the U.S. has one of the highest known infections rates in the world.

In the Asheville metropolitan area, located in North Carolina, a total of 106,885 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 23,756 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 26,906 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Asheville is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Asheville metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, Buncombe County in North Carolina has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 59,885 confirmed infections in Buncombe County, or 23,533 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Buncombe County have the lowest per capita infection rate in the Asheville metro area, it also has a relatively low per capita fatality rate.

There have been a total of 238 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Buncombe County, below the 276 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Asheville metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of July 17, 2022.

These are all the counties in North Carolina where COVID-19 is slowing (and where it’s still getting worse).

Rank	Geography	COVID cases per 100,000 people	Total cases	Deaths per 100,000 people	Total deaths
1	Buncombe County, NC	23,533	59,885	238	606
2	Haywood County, NC	23,633	14,282	374	226
3	Henderson County, NC	23,896	27,152	288	327
4	Madison County, NC	26,003	5,566	378	81

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