More than three-quarters of rural counties have reported a case of Covid-19 as of April 14, according to data compiled by USA Facts
One out of five rural counties has reported a death caused by the virus.
In urban America, 39 percent of counties have reported a death.
The map above shows the spread of the novel coronavirus as of April 14.
Click on the map and you can see the cases and deaths in each county as of April 14 and a week ago.
The national numbers of cases and deaths are being driven by the largest cities (primarily New York) and their suburbs. Rural counties report having 55 cases per 100,000 residents, up from 33 per 100,000 just a week ago. The suburbs of the nation’s largest cities report 304 cases per 100,000.
But, again, most of that suburban number is driven by the New York metro area. In fact, the story of Covid-19 is largely local – the outbreaks are local. In some counties, there is an outbreak in a nursing home that drives the local infection rate. One of the highest rates of infection now is in South Dakota, where the virus raced through workers at a meat processing plant.
Nonmetropolitan (or rural) counties contain about 15% of the U.S. population but account for only 4% of the nation’s 600,000 cases of Covid-19. Just over 3% of the nation’s deaths from coronavirus infection are in rural areas.
As of April 14, more than 80% of Covid-19 cases and deaths are in large metropolitan areas – metros with a population of 1 million or greater.
The rate of increase in coronavirus infections was slightly higher in rural areas from April 7 to 14. Cases increased by about 65% in nonmetropolitan counties during the period, while the rate of increase in large metros was 52%. But in raw numbers, that means rural areas added about 1,000 cases, while the number of cases in major metropolitan areas jumped by 165,000.
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