COVID-19: More Than 1 in 200 People Have Died in These Counties

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Dec 23, 7:39AM EST

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COVID-19: More Than 1 in 200 People Have Died in These Counties — © dlerick / Getty Images

COVID-19 has taken 322,343 lives in America, a country with a population of 331,002,651. Soon, the pandemic will have killed one out of every 1,000 Americans. In some counties, the ratio is much, much worse. In a few, the disease has taken over one life per 200 people.

The ratios will get worse. U.S. deaths now increase by over 3,000 some days. That figure is bound to rise. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine has one of the most carefully followed and widely regarded COVID-19 prediction models for deaths, daily infections, testing, mask use, hospital resource use and social distancing. Its scientists forecast that 509,000 Americans will die by April 1, if Americans do not take more aggressive measures to arrest the spread of the disease.

The counties where more than one person out of 200 has died of COVID-19 are small by population. None has more than 14,000 residents. Several have fewer than 3,000. Most share something in common. They are located in two states that have been devastated by the disease: North and South Dakota. Jerauld County, South Dakota, tops of the list with 1.5 deaths per 200 people.

Another measure shows how much the disease has spread in the Dakotas. North Dakota ranks 47th among states in population at 765,309. Yet, it ranks ahead of 11 states based on confirmed COVID-19 cases at 90,549. South Dakota ranks 46th among states by population at 892,717, and 12 stats rank behind it based on confirmed COVID-19 cases when measured against its 95,509 total. Vermont, the 50th state by population at 623,347, has only 6,608 confirmed cases. The contrast between Vermont and the Dakotas shows just how horrible things have become in the plains states.
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The other counties on the list do not present a pattern. There is one each in Texas, Georgia and Virginia.

Over time, the list of counties in which 1 in 200 people have died of COVID-19 will grow. In some of the hardest-hit counties, the figure could approach 1 in 100.

These are the five most dangerous counties for COVID-19 by state.

Counties Where More Than 1 in 200 Have Died of COVID-19

State	County	Population	Deaths	Deaths per 200
South Dakota	Jerauld	2,029	15	1.5
North Dakota	Dickey	4,970	32	1.3
South Dakota	Gregory	4,201	26	1.2
North Dakota	Foster	3,290	19	1.2
South Dakota	Turner	8,264	47	1.1
Georgia	Hancock	8,535	47	1.1
Virginia	Emporia	5,381	29	1.1
North Dakota	Pierce	4,210	21	1.0
South Dakota	Buffalo	2,053	10	1.0
North Dakota	Renville	2,495	12	1.0
Texas	Lamb	13,262	63	1.0

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.