State by State Coronavirus Cases as Percentage of Population Tracker

Updated January 20, 2022     37 Comments
Originally posted April 5, 2020

COVID-19 Trackers

This page is in the Code Graveyard; this data is outdated and was last updated in 2021.

This tracks the confirmed coronavirus cases as a percent of the population for each state in the USA.

States are listed in order by those with the highest percentage of the population with confirmed coronavirus COVID-19.

(To see the rate of increase for US COVID-19 cases, see this, or rate of increase for US COVID-19 deaths, see this. Or see coronavirus deaths as a percent of the population for each state, or more coronavirus trackers here.)

Below the bar chart, you will find the table of numbers in case you prefer to see the actual data. Jump down there. Or, jump down to see the source of this data.

Note: Data as of October 16, 2021.

STATE BY STATE COVID-19 CASES AS PERCENT OF POPULATION
STATE POPULATION # CASES # CASES AS PERCENT OF POPULATION
North Dakota 762,062 141,302 18.54206 %
Tennessee 6,829,174 1,233,914 18.06828 %
Alaska 731,545 126,893 17.34589 %
South Carolina 5,148,714 883,982 17.16899 %
South Dakota 884,659 149,996 16.95523 %
Florida 21,477,737 3,623,046 16.86884 %
Arkansas 3,017,804 506,573 16.78615 %
Wyoming 578,759 97,137 16.78367 %
Mississippi 2,976,149 497,790 16.72598 %
Rhode Island 1,059,361 176,405 16.65202 %
Alabama 4,903,185 813,481 16.59087 %
Utah 3,205,958 529,253 16.50842 %
Kentucky 4,467,673 730,153 16.34303 %
Louisiana 4,648,794 751,874 16.17353 %
Oklahoma 3,956,971 631,872 15.96858 %
Arizona 7,278,717 1,131,976 15.55186 %
Idaho 1,787,065 276,922 15.49591 %
Montana 1,068,778 164,846 15.42378 %
Iowa 3,155,070 472,331 14.97054 %
Georgia 10,617,423 1,579,662 14.87802 %
Indiana 6,732,219 999,870 14.85201 %
Wisconsin 5,822,434 850,140 14.60111 %
Kansas 2,913,314 424,108 14.55758 %
West Virginia 1,792,147 259,585 14.48458 %
Texas 28,995,881 4,170,584 14.38337 %
Delaware 973,764 139,874 14.36426 %
Nevada 3,080,156 441,021 14.31814 %
Nebraska 1,934,408 275,694 14.25211 %
Missouri 6,137,428 857,726 13.97533 %
North Carolina 10,488,084 1,449,002 13.81570 %
Minnesota 5,639,632 755,525 13.39671 %
New Jersey 8,882,190 1,180,388 13.28938 %
Illinois 12,671,821 1,671,079 13.18736 %
New York 19,453,561 2,501,128 12.85692 %
Ohio 11,689,100 1,494,160 12.78251 %
New Mexico 2,096,829 263,755 12.57876 %
Colorado 5,758,736 709,385 12.31842 %
California 39,512,223 4,829,415 12.22258 %
Michigan 9,986,857 1,217,412 12.19014 %
Massachusetts 6,892,503 833,311 12.09011 %
Pennsylvania 12,801,989 1,506,609 11.76855 %
Connecticut 3,565,287 397,123 11.13860 %
Virginia 8,535,519 902,938 10.57860 %
New Hampshire 1,359,711 128,047 9.41722 %
Washington 7,614,893 697,362 9.15787 %
Maryland 6,045,680 549,911 9.09593 %
District of Columbia 705,749 62,976 8.92329 %
Oregon 4,217,737 348,766 8.26903 %
Maine 1,344,212 97,725 7.27006 %
Puerto Rico 3,193,694 216,889 6.79116 %
Vermont 623,989 37,069 5.94065 %
Hawaii 1,415,872 79,697 5.62883 %

Sources:
COVID-19 confirmed case numbers from The New York Times data repository, based on reports from state and local health agencies.
Population numbers from the US Census Bureau Data API (2019)

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We've 37 Responses

  2. July 1st, 2020 at 2:56 pm

    Thank you, I could not find this info anywhere else, we need to know this virus as a percentage. For instance California has a large percentage of the virus but has a large population. As such, the State has done well in comparison to other States in containment of the virus

    Reply ↓
    D Gieseman

  3. July 7th, 2020 at 11:29 pm

    Absolutely people should wear masks. . Wearing a mask is a form of protection for others. We do not know the percentage of asymptomatic carriers

    Reply ↓
    Louise

    • July 20th, 2020 at 8:28 pm

      Masks are USELESS at stopping virus from entering or exiting the airway. Most educated people know this. Viruses are approximately 120 – 130 microns in size; and wearing a mask to stop a VIRUS is akin to installing a screen door on a submarine to prevent water from entering. Connect the dots. People have been lied to!. People’s businesses have been forced to shut down over otherwise inconsequential percentages, which only a decade ago would never pass for detstroying an entire economy, creating arbitrary rules as to which businesses are ‘essential’ or non-essential. I’ll tell you who is non-essential: all of these corrupt governors from democrat States who are destroying the lives and businesses of thousands over utterly minuscule percentages and a virus which has been entirely overblown – according to the medical establishment. Masks are only effective at stopping bacteria and spit from a sneeze from flying across a room. They are USELESS for viruses unless you’re have a N95 type.

      Reply ↓
      Skip

      • August 4th, 2020 at 9:13 am

        @ Skip – I’ve read that same comparison and it’s true that that virus itself is very tiny, but it does not travel as a single cell. It travels in vapor from our breath, which is MUCH larger and WILL get trapped by a mask. This is why, for example, nursing home cases went down once masks were given to visiting nurses (prior, masks were saved for hospitals and visiting nurses wore no masks).

        The bottom line: to stop spreading this virus…we need to stop spreading it! That means not breathing on anyone. That’s all it takes.

        Reply ↓
        Bill

        • August 21st, 2020 at 6:55 pm

          Stop breathing on anyone? I wasn’t breathing on people before this plandemic started, why would I be breathing on anyone now? How about we all just stop breathing?

          This is all nonsense to get people to accept a mandatory vaccine. Neither the CDC (a government agency) nor the WHO (a UN agency) can be trusted.

          Reply ↓
          Fred

          • September 26th, 2020 at 4:28 pm

            I believe you’ve been lied to & chosen to accept the lie as truth. The truth is elementals to understand & do: wear a mask (or 2) whenever you go outside your home & around ppl. Just do it to protect yourself & others around you. FACT: If you decide masks are too uncomfortable & restricting, you’re really not going to like being on a ventilator. Think of it as sparing you and someone else from getting sick. This is for your safety…like obeying traffic signs; it’s for everyone’s safety. Be kind. Be thoughtful. Be responsible for your actions.

            Mary Giordano

        • September 25th, 2020 at 10:40 pm

          Bill,
          I have had this same debate. Look up CDC data for SARS. If the mask has three layers and is worn tightly across the mouth and noise which nobody does, it can block up to 40% of water droplets. However, more recent studies have shown that in the actual transmittal of the disease they are not effective. By the way, a water droplet size that can carry the virus is 1um. If you look at Dav id’s post that is 37 times smaller than the cloth mask sieve or weave openings of the best cloth.

          In addition, the water droplets with the virus can get on the mask, dry out, and the virus breathed in through the mask before it dies. This is low probability because it could also be blown off the mask when breathing out, but it is not zero. Even the N95 mask which blocks particles 3X larger than the COVID virus 95% of the time is not full proof.

          Look at the true data on Sweden where they did not enforce masks and shutdowns. The news media will have you believe that Sweden is terrible, but they have been in single digit or zero deaths per day since mid July! They have 5,880 total deaths for a population of 10,343,403 or 56.85 per 100,000 versus New York at 173 deaths per 100,000! What happens is herd immunity. Younger people get the virus and their system kills it. They eject dead virus and other people get it. It builds up their immune system. This is what happened in Sweden.

          Reply ↓
          mike

          • January 27th, 2021 at 10:42 am

            Sweden has changed their policies to recommend masks. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55371102

            This thread has a lot of misinformation. Masks are an effective tool to reduce sharing Illness. Shed dead virus from healthy people being shared via happenstance is not how heard immunity works.

            https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2020/05/05/the-problem-with-herd-immunity-as-a-covid-19-strategy/

            Masks are an important part of this. Just as they are essential infection control in clinical settings. Additionally, reducing your viral load has been linked to lower severity. So the bugs and leaves that the screen door keeps out may actually be a big deal for your mortality.

            Fighting a problem like Covid requires continuous updating of the latest information for decisions, not finding a thing that meets your expectations and using it to justify your own preferences.

            If you aren’t a molecular Biologist or an epidemiologist, a researcher in the field, or other person on the cutting edge of this battle please consider that your ‘insight’ may be missing crucial information. The best in their fields of those who study these things for a living are always asking about what they are missing.

            Wynne

      • August 13th, 2020 at 10:55 pm

        I am with you. My company NO MASK NO WORK so I do wear it at work but it comes off when I walk out the door. I don’t wear the mask and I won’t be getting vaccination shot.

        Reply ↓
        ray

      • January 24th, 2021 at 12:37 pm

        Mask do not have to stop the virus particles themselves, they stop the droplets expelled by sneezing, coughing, etc. which contain the virus. Many studies have proven that they are effective at this. And the main purpose of masks is not to protect the wearer, it is to prevent infected people from spewing those droplets and infecting others.

        Reply ↓
        skeptonomist

  4. July 20th, 2020 at 9:17 am

    Can you post countries testing for Covid as a percentage of population and sort that as how the countries are doing with Covid?

    Reply ↓
    Grayton Sands

  5. September 1st, 2020 at 9:25 am

    I would like to see the 15-day moving average of daily new cases as a percentage of population by state. This will tell you more about the rate of the current spread by state versus telling us about rate of infection going back to March. We are 6 months into this so the simple average is 1/6th of the total average. If the US has about 1.5% of the population having had COVID at some point, this represents a daily infection rate of 0.25% of the population. Is the 15 day moving average greater or less than this 0.25%? I would think less than based on the data I have seen.

    Reply ↓
    Darren B

  6. September 3rd, 2020 at 12:00 pm

    2% confirmed cases in 6 mos. 94% of deaths had one or several co-mirbidity factors according the CDC and if you look at the CDC’s excess death measure it isn’t much higher than the 180k deaths attributed to COVID 19. This just in…Humans are mortal. Sadly we get old and die and even more sadly some of us die from health issues before we get the chance to grow old. Some of these factors are out of our control like my niece who has CF. Some of them are impacted by lifestyle choices like my uncle who smoked and died of young from emphysema. I think more dialog around what we can do to keep a healthy immune system so that our bodies can do what human bodies have been doing for 100000 years in fighting the never ending battle against viruses would be more productive than pretending that this one novel virus is the embodiment of 7 horses of the apocalypse. Keep calm and carry on people.

    Reply ↓
    Rick

    • September 17th, 2020 at 9:47 am

      Rick,

      I read all of these and you spoke bluntly so I’m replying to you. We spent $6T, that’s 15 zeros on “containment”. 195K deaths. Do the math. Millions of $ on each death with a 6% morbidity rate “solely” due to coronavirus. It’s BS.

      One post was also blunt but failed to be completely accurate, again, math tells the story. A coronavirus (virion) is .12 microns in diameter. The US Textile industry publishes a ‘sieve’ rating for materials that it manufactures. A very good mask is 400 thread count cotton. That has a sieve rating of 37 microns. One hole in a 400 count cotton mask will eject or inhale about 296 X 296 (8700+-) coronavirus virions. Yes a mask might help in a rare case, but even an N-95 only filters out larger particles. Believe me, you’re breathing it.

      Last, the vaccine is not the answer, treatment is. A 99% cure rate is already possible, for everyone. It’s time to live our lives in freedom, not fear. Death is inevitable, and should reflect a good life, not a politically correct experiment gone haywire!

      David

      Reply ↓
      David

      • September 24th, 2020 at 9:12 pm

        David, A mask with a hole in it? How does the virions compare to a mask with no holes or a good mask-less sneeze? The amount of virions inhaled matters. We all have probably inhaled some and our immune system has taken care of it. Being inundated is a different scenario. I question the number of dollars spent to contain the virus when broken down. Loans are not gifts and aid to stimulate the economy is not containment.

        Reply ↓
        Dan

        • September 30th, 2020 at 8:25 am

          Dan. Certainly a fair question. All masks have openings (holes) in them or you couldn’t breathe at all through them. The better the mask, the more uniform and usually smaller the hole size. N-95 masks filter out 95% of the airborne particles in the air, but necessarily let 5% pass through,etc. etc.

          You are exactly right in that the amount of virions matter. If you want immunity, the dead virions, or those incapable of commanding a replication from the cells they attach to, are where you get that naturally. Many vaccines are simply dead, neutral, or weak virions, injected into the person for just that reason.

          The cost of the coronavirus containment is pure arithmetic. I’ll let it stand on its own. Anyone can check it.

          Politics is ALWAYS about $$$. I agree with that. I believe the biggest travesty in all of this is that the Truth about any of it is being buried by partisan agendas with no concern for public service, or the government’s duty to spend wisely!

          Reply ↓
          David

    • October 16th, 2020 at 1:38 am

      I agree with you, our society has many co-morbidities to a fault of their own, eating processed foods causing inflammation ie: sugar. We need to be more prudent with good nutrition coming from good soil, not running to big pharma at first sneeze.

      Reply ↓
      Rebecca Battaglia

  7. September 23rd, 2020 at 12:40 pm

    Do you have anything on hospitalizations? Do you think Alabama has more cases because we are testing more now or is it something else because our death rate definitely does not correspond with the number of cases

    Reply ↓
    Lynn Brown

  8. October 27th, 2020 at 7:46 pm

    I am from ny
    the rate of infection/death
    was very high here when we knew nothing/did nothing about it
    but once we became aware our rates went down
    much of wearing a mask is the complete psychology of it
    I do not wear a mask when I leave my home
    but I alter my path to stay away from others
    when I go in a store I am efficient-getting what I need quickly always managing my space as well as I can while I wear a mask
    then remove it after leaving-usually allowing it to breathe
    while it hangs from my hand-washing it later
    there is no sure way to fight this virus-
    there is only – doing everything reasonable/possible
    to limit its spread-
    but most important is awareness-
    limiting your time and space
    around others especially in closed areas
    and being extra careful with washing hands/not touching face
    this virus is not smarter than us-
    it simply does what it does-effectively
    the question is…are we capable of learning
    and accepting the need for uncomfortable anti-social behavior
    for a consistent/long enough period of time
    to reduce its spread instead of assisting it to spread
    good luck everyone…please stay well

    Reply ↓
    john

  9. November 12th, 2020 at 8:07 pm

    I see only 3% of our state population has the virus. It seems statistically hard to get it, and even harder to die from it. Where I live, it’s just a low number. I can see why people don’t want to stay home and wear masks for what is really no more risky than getting regular flu any winter season. 3% if about the same number as flu-patients any other winter. But undeniably, two neighbors have died of it.

    Reply ↓
    Patricia Smith

  10. November 26th, 2020 at 10:47 am

    Why is it spreading and infecting so many now when the majority are wearing masks and they are the ones being infected.

    Do not say that [its those NOT wearing a mask spreading it] as the mask wearers would not be affected as it is the “protection” from it, if those masks were so effective controlling the spread and there would not be a [resurgence]. How many of the [cases] are mild, serious, severe, hospitalized and deaths and how many “positive” “cases” have no symptoms (not enough viral load to be sick or pass it on to others). This matters as those percentages show the real issues as IF it is to be FEARED.
    No one cared or was lightly covered in the media about the flu and how many [cases] there were, most didn’t go to the Dr. so they were not [reported] and people didn’t just go out and get tested for it when they didn’t have symptoms or were just around someone with it. The flu DOES KILL a certain percentage just as it does with corona and they are just as DEAD and have SUFFERED with it.
    There were not daily and hundreds of articles saying how deadly it was (over 65000) and how it had to be feared if you got it and how to prevent it. The media didn’t tell people to fear it so they did not.

    The media is presenting, promoting, propagandizing, hyping and politicizing corona as the be all end all of what to be feared that will kill you if you get it. This is not true and the reporting of it is shabby at best with no real statistics and the differences of those statistics that show the real issues.

    They are still reporting that over 200,000 have died FROM IT when they have already ADMITTED that those numbers were not true and that most every death in the U S was from corona when they were not. Why keep using that false number except to sensationalize and propagandize.

    People get it and think they are [dying] when it is not going to do this but they feel bad (as normal as they are SICK. You do not feel good when you are sick, but you are not dying). I have had the flue twice and the second time was hospitalized because of complications of the pneumonia so I know what it is like.

    I am high risk now and do not fear it and it will not dictate my life. I will not go out and get tested if I do not have symptoms nor if I have cold/allergy symptoms or have been around someone who has tested positive. It is my life and I have the responsibility to direct it, so do others for theirs and I am not responsible for their choices in that, and they are not for mine. They do not have the authority to do that for me either.

    Reply ↓
    Sonya Appel

    • November 28th, 2020 at 8:28 am

      Agreed. You also have the responsibility to tell the Truth, as you just did. THAT is what others, particularly our ‘leaders’ are not doing. Big government is crying “wolf!” The panicked people you meet are not lying, just repeating the lies that they have heard. ‘Chicken Little!’

      The real story is obvious to all who read the death toll, overall, in the US. The definition of a “coronavirus death” doesn’t support the shift in other causes of death. We were told to shut down to avoid 2 million+ COVID deaths. We did, and that hasn’t happened. The national death rate is average or below average. COVID is just a replacement for the others. Google is making that search harder and harder to do. On average, around 8000 people die every day in the US. 2020 is no different.

      Fear is a common tool used by tyrants. You expressed lack of fear and refusal to embrace it when it’s presented with no basis in fact. Good for you! We need more free thinkers, and fewer lemmings.

      Reply ↓
      David

    • February 21st, 2021 at 8:48 am

      You are right. Sonya check out green tea extract or Quercetin with zinc for use in case you do get sick. In the meantime take vit D with magnesium and vitamin c to build up your immune system. No reason to hide and tremble, like so many others.

      Reply ↓
      Renate

  11. November 29th, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    hi.. thanks for the info. guessing 1? column woud be missing (not sure if call it per us capita / i am not a math guy), but for example, if there are 100 people in the state vs 100 people in a room would reflect some more true danger.. then that would be good to know. thanks – dave

    Reply ↓
    Jeremiah B. Froege

    • November 30th, 2020 at 7:47 pm

      I don’t see it that way. I just think the two aspects of COVID that are being ignored or glossed over are the reason that it causes so much fear. It is not as contagious as they say. It is not as deadly as they say. It is not killing people like they said it would. The mask and the vaccine are “the answer” to the perception, not the problem.

      Reply ↓
      David

      • December 13th, 2020 at 2:58 pm

        Don’t you mean censored and suppressed?
        I think we’re being groomed for compliance to accommodate the goals towards an agenda??

        Even some of the Republican Governors are drinking the Fauci koolaid. Ohio has roughly the same percentage as Florida, but our guy has a lineup of complicit docs snapping at us like disobedient children.

        Reply ↓
        Debby

        • January 5th, 2021 at 9:57 pm

          Yes, I do mean censored, and suppressed. Hydroxychloroquine works. Ivermectin works. The therapeutic tacts that doctors took originally were common sense and were effective. The push to buy into a monstrous world wide vaccination program solves nothing, and again is rife with inaccuracy, ineffectiveness, and manipulation.

          The “agenda” you speak of is ‘Agenda 21’ all the way from 1979. Introduced to America by George HW Bush in 1992. Yes, Republicans are involved too.

          Reply ↓
          David

          • February 21st, 2021 at 8:38 am

            Quercetin with Zinc works. The Quercetin is the channel into the cell, the zinc kills it. I used this the first day with symptoms after my son and his wife infected me. Yes, they both wore masks. My son was sick for a week because he has asthma and started the Quercetin later. Masks don’t work. I was sick for three days with this virus at age 68. I have immune issues. .This virus is contagious, but has weakened, obviously. You can see it in the graph showing deaths. Yet, I don’t trust the numbers coming out of the varying state health departments. It’ all political and an excuse to control us and implement an agenda we would never allow otherwise. We need to stop cowering over a virus with a 99% recovery rate.

            Renate

  12. January 27th, 2021 at 10:52 am

    Thank you. Great site.
    Would you consider making a table showing percent of population in US and by state since the beginning:
    -Testing positive
    Plus
    -received at least the first dose of vaccine.(is this info accurately available?)
    And update weekly.
    This would tell us the % of population -possibly- no longer able to infect others.
    Combined with routine prevention practices and high groups taking
    Higher precautions it may help avoid deaths.

    Of course anyone in country who is not in any of the databases would Alter the picture we get.

    Reply ↓
    Cindy

  13. February 13th, 2021 at 10:27 pm

    Your data conflicts with some simple math I’ve used to compute what percent of Utahs’ population has contracted COVID. The population of the state is about 3.16 million and the number of cases contracted there is 360,584 according to the NY times. This puts the percentage of population who have tested positive at less than 8.8 percent, not 11.2 percent. What could be causing this conflict in data?

    Reply ↓
    Levi Call

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