Special Report
This Is the County in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metro Area With the Least COVID-19
Published:
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 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area, which covers parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, a total of 2,435,905 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 25,543 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 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is being driven by one area in particular.
The broader Chicago metro area comprises 14 counties or county equivalents — and of them, Newton County in Indiana has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 2,727 confirmed infections in Newton County, or 19,454 for every 100,000 people.
Though Newton County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Chicago metro area, its per capita fatality rate is disproportionately high.
There have been a total of 492 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Newton County, above the 259 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro area.
All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of July 17, 2022.
| Rank | Geography | COVID cases per 100,000 people | Total cases | Deaths per 100,000 people | Total deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Newton County, IN | 19,454 | 2,727 | 492 | 69 |
| 2 | Lake County, IN | 23,751 | 115,631 | 381 | 1,856 |
| 3 | Porter County, IN | 24,517 | 41,199 | 342 | 575 |
| 4 | Cook County, IL | 25,027 | 1,307,317 | 279 | 14,556 |
| 5 | Lake County, IL | 25,035 | 176,150 | 202 | 1,424 |
| 6 | DeKalb County, IL | 25,827 | 26,912 | 193 | 201 |
| 7 | DuPage County, IL | 26,485 | 246,768 | 187 | 1,746 |
| 8 | Kane County, IL | 26,758 | 142,041 | 216 | 1,145 |
| 9 | Will County, IL | 26,820 | 184,710 | 228 | 1,572 |
| 10 | Grundy County, IL | 27,508 | 13,894 | 277 | 140 |
| 11 | McHenry County, IL | 27,588 | 84,913 | 160 | 491 |
| 12 | Kendall County, IL | 28,635 | 35,687 | 132 | 164 |
| 13 | Jasper County, IN | 28,671 | 9,590 | 448 | 150 |
| 14 | Kenosha County, WI | 28,733 | 48,366 | 384 | 647 |
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