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 Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area, located in North Carolina, a total of 142,969 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 25,599 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 Durham-Chapel Hill is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Durham metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, Chatham County in North Carolina has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 14,743 confirmed infections in Chatham County, or 21,125 for every 100,000 people.

Though Chatham County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Durham metro area, its per capita fatality rate is disproportionately high.

There have been a total of 173 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Chatham County, above the 128 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Durham-Chapel Hill 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	Chatham County, NC	21,125	14,743	173	121
2	Orange County, NC	22,643	32,365	97	139
3	Person County, NC	26,215	10,304	282	111
4	Durham County, NC	27,918	85,557	113	345

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.