COVID-19: The County Where The Most People Are Dying

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 13, 6:57AM EST

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COVID-19: The County Where The Most People Are Dying — © RichVintage / E+ via Getty Images

The spread of COVID-19 has slowed, but the disease remains deadly. Anxiety continues that new variants may spread more easily, or could be more deadly. And, the rate at which Americans get vaccinations continues to stumble.

Confirmed cases in America number 27,746,122, about a quarter of the world’s total. Fatal cases, at 484,930, sit at nearly a fifth of the world’s total.

The spread and deadliness of the disease get measured in several ways. Among them, deaths confirmed cases, and hospitalizations remain the most common. Another marker is deaths and cases per 100,000 people. This allows for an apples to apple comparison from county to county and state to state regardless of population.

24/7 Wall St. has looked at the 14-day death rate per 100,000 across all counties in America. This allowed us to locate the counties where the most people are dying in relation to their populations.

No.1 on this list, Borden County, Texas has a rate of 21.48, as of February 11, much higher than any other county in America. According to the U.S. Census, Borden has a small population of 641, spread over just above 900 square miles. So, it is very sparsely populated. Borden County is located south/southeast of Lubbock.

Of Borden County’s population, just over 78% are White and 18% Hispanic. The median household income is $72,188, which is above the national average. The poverty rate of 10.6% is close to the national number.

After Borden County, the next county on the list based on the 14-day death rate per 100,000 is Bath, Virginia at 13.01. Its population is 4,393. It is followed by Van Buren, Tennessee at 12.52. Its population is 5,704. Next, McMullen, Texas has a count of 10.79. Its population is 662. And, following it, Glascock County, Georgia has a figure of 9.5. It has a population of 3,009.

An alternate way to measure the spread of the diseases relies on new cases over a 14-day period per 100,000. The county at the top of this list is Pike County, Georgia at 426.23. Its population is 18,082. It is followed by Pierce County, Georgia at 421.55. Its population is 19,164. And, it is followed by Upson County, Georgia at 420.68. Its population is 26,126. Pike County and Pierce County are over 200 miles apart. Pike County and Upson county are less than 20 miles apart.

Next on the list based on new cases over a 14-day period per 100,000 is Burleson County, Texas at 395.87. Its population is 17,863. That is followed by Caldwell County, Texas at 383.50. Its population is 41,401. The two Texas counties are only 8 miles apart.

The ravages of the disease have peaked in Borden County, Texas. That peak will move elsewhere as it has over the year-lone course of the disease. However, the damage done will almost certainly linger for years.

Click here to read This Is How Many People Have Died of COVID-19 in Every State

Click here to read Major Milestones in the Race to Vaccinate Every American Against COVID-19

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.