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THE COLOR OF CORONAVIRUS: COVID-19 DEATHS BY RACE AND ETHNICITY IN THE U.S.
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Our ongoing Color of Coronavirus project monitors how and where COVID-19 mortality is inequitably impacting certain communities—to guide policy and community responses to these disproportionate deaths. The coronavirus has claimed nearly 171,000 American lives through Aug. 18, 2020—about 15,000 more than our last update two weeks ago, or averaging about 1,100 deaths per day. We know the race and ethnicity for 95% of the cumulative deaths in the United States.
Our latest update reveals continued wide disparities by race, most dramatically for Black and Indigenous Americans. We also adjust these mortality rates for age, a common and important tool that health researchers use to compare diseases that affect age groups differently. This results in even larger mortality disparities observed between Black, Indigenous, and other populations of color relative to Whites, who experience the lowest age-adjusted rates nationally. Age-adjusting elevates the mortality rate (above the actual rate) for Latinos more than any other group—revealing that COVID-19 is stealing far more Latino lives than we would expect despite this group’s relative youthfulness.
See our work cited in Forbes, CNN, NBC News, Vox, JAMA, Politico, Newsweek, Al Jazeera, the Washington Post, The Hill, The Guardian, the New York Times and numerous other outlets.
The APM Research Lab has independently compiled these death statistics. (Learn more about how). The result is the most robust and up-to-date portrait of COVID-19 mortality by race available anywhere, with a lens on inequitable deaths. We have been tracking these deaths for more than four months now, revealing COVID-19’s growing toll on all Americans, but with the heaviest losses among Black and Indigenous Americans. In addition, Latinos and Blacks have seen the sharpest rise in their actual mortality rates during the past two weeks, as shown below.
KEY FINDINGS (data collected through Aug. 18):
Actual death rates from COVID-19 data (aggregated from all U.S. states and the District of Columbia) have reached new highs for all race groups:
1 in 1,125 Black Americans has died (or 88.4 deaths per 100,000)
1 in 1,375 Indigenous Americans has died (or 73.2 deaths per 100,000)
1 in 1,575 Pacific Islander Americans has died (or 63.9 deaths per 100,000)
1 in 1,850 Latino Americans has died (or 54.4 deaths per 100,000)
1 in 2,450 White Americans has died (or 40.4 deaths per 100,000)
1 in 2,750 Asian Americans has died (or 36.4 deaths per 100,000)
Black Americans continue to experience the highest actual COVID-19 mortality rates nationwide—more than twice as high as the rate for Whites and Asians, who have the lowest actual rates.
If they had died of COVID-19 at the same actual
rate as White Americans, about 19,500 Black,
8,400 Latino, 600 Indigenous, and 70 Pacific Islander Americans would still be alive.
Adjusting the data for age differences in race groups widens the gap in the overall mortality rates between all other groups and Whites, who have the lowest rate. Compared to Whites, the latest U.S. age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rate for:
Blacks is 3.6 times as high
Indigenous people is 3.4 times as high
Latinos is 3.2 times as high
Pacific Islanders is 3.0 times as high, and
Asians is 1.3 times as high.
(A fuller discussion of our indirectly age-adjusted rates follows.)
HOW TO EXAMINE THE DATA:
1. EXPLORE FINDINGS BY GEOGRAPHY, COMPARING GROUPS
We’ve presented the data we’ve collected for the nation overall and each state as:
Actual mortality rates expressed per 100,000;
Indirectly age-adjusted mortality rates per 100,000; and as
Total deaths experienced by each racial and ethnic group.
If you’d like to examine the percentage of deaths compared to the percentage of population by racial group for each state (which previously appeared on this site), you can find this data in our complete data file.
2. EXPLORE FINDINGS BY GROUP, COMPARING GEOGRAPHIES
Examine the differences for one group at a time across all states with available data. For each group, we provide contextual data and a visual comparison against White Americans’ rates using the age-adjusted data, to examine where disparities relative to Whites are the greatest.
INDIGENOUS AMERICANS | ASIAN AMERICANS | BLACK AMERICANS | LATINO AMERICANS |
WHITE AMERICANS | NATIVE HAWAIIAN & OTHER PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS
For more context about the shortcomings of some of the data, please read our note about Indigenous, Pacific Islander, Multiracial and Other Race Americans.
UNDERSTANDING AGE-ADJUSTED MORTALITY RATES
While there are many features of the novel coronavirus that are still unclear, this we know with certainty: The risk of dying from COVID-19 rises sharply with advanced age. About 2 in 100,000 Americans under age 45 have died from the virus, according to data submitted to the CDC through Aug. 8. The COVID-19 death rate for Americans age 45-54 rises to 19 per 100,000; roughly doubles for those age 55-64 (44 per 100,000); and more than doubles among those age 65-74 (103 per 100,000). Among Americans age 75 and older, the death toll exceeds 398 people per 100,000, as shown below.
Due to this steep age gradient to COVID-19 mortality, it is important to consider the varying age distributions of America’s racial and ethnic groups. A higher share of White Americans are in the older age brackets than any other group. To illustrate this, consider that the median age of non-Hispanic White Americans is 44 years, according to the latest Census Bureau data. The comparable figure for all populations of color is considerably lower—for Asians (37), Blacks (34), Pacific Islanders (33), Indigenous (32) and especially Latinos (30), half of whom have not yet reached their 30th birthday.
Even within the same race groups, the age distribution varies—with retirement destination states such as Florida having a much higher share of older adults within their White population, for example.
Black, Indigenous, Pacific Islander and Latino Americans all have a COVID-19 death rate of triple or more White Americans (age-adjusted).
So, to remove the role of age differences from COVID-19 mortality rates, we have also produced age-adjusted rates. Because mortality data is not available for all states by race and age jointly (which is preferred), we have used indirect standardization to calculate these rates. See our NOTES section for details and cautions about our method.
Adjusting the racial data we’ve collected for age differences increases the COVID-19 mortality rate for all racial and ethnic groups except for Whites, who experience a decrease, as shown below.
While Black Americans continue to experience the highest COVID-19 mortality rate after age-adjusting, doing so also widens the gap between Black and White mortality—from 2.2 to 3.6 times as high. Mortality rates for Indigenous people rise to 3.4 times as high as Whites’ mortality impact. Rates for Latinos and Pacific Islanders also rise substantially, to 3.2 and 3.0 times as high as Whites, respectively. Finally, the Asian mortality rate—which was slightly below the White rate—rises above the White death rate (1.3 times as high), when age is taken into account. Put another way, Black, Indigenous, Pacific Islander and Latino Americans all have COVID-19 death rates of triple or more the rate of White Americans (age-adjusted).
What does this mean? It indicates that many younger Americans who are Black, Latino, Indigenous or Pacific Islanders are dying of COVID-19—driving their mortality rates far above White Americans’. Despite their relative youthfulness (a protective factor against COVID), their death rates are elevated. As Brookings Institution has reported, “In every age category, Black people are dying from COVID at roughly the same rate as White people more than a decade older.”
Depending on the community, this may be due to numerous, reinforcing factors related to a higher likelihood of contracting the virus—such as greater workplace exposures, including inability to work from home or no access to sick days; living in geographic areas, housing arrangements including congregate settings (such as nursing homes, group homes, treatment centers, correctional facilities), or accessing public transportation where the virus is more easily spread. It also results from poorer outcomes after acquiring COVID-19—such as resulting from less access to testing; higher presence of underlying health conditions like diabetes, hypertension, obesity and asthma; and receiving delayed or poorer medical care, perhaps because they lack health insurance or distrust health providers or they are simply receiving inferior care. The racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality—due to these compounding, elevated risks from our systems of housing, labor force, health care, and policy responses—are what is termed systemic racism.
It is important to note that, while age-adjusted mortality rates help us remove the influence of age differences in racial groups to examine disparities in outcomes, they are not the actual mortality rates experienced by these groups.
EXAMINE RATES FOR YOUR STATE(S) OF INTEREST:
Review mortality rates—both actual and age-adjusted—for the District of Columbia or any state by changing the dropdown menu below. Rates were not calculated when there were fewer than 15 deaths for a particular group (resulting in a “0” value in the graph below). Rates for Indigenous and Pacific Islander residents could only be calculated for some states. Additionally, rates were not calculated for multiracial people, nor those identified as “Other” race. Please see our complete data file for additional information, including a count of deaths below 15.
SEARCH BY STATE
(Use Shift + Ctrl to select more than one state.)
ALLAlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
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VIEW THE AGE-ADJUSTED RATES
COVID-19 DEATHS PER 100,000 PEOPLE, THROUGH AUG. 18, 2020
* Includes all available data from Washington, D.C., and the 50 states. Users are cautioned that the Indigenous rate is calculated from just 30 states reporting Indigenous deaths, and the Pacific Islander rate from just 15 states reporting such deaths. States employ varying collection methods regarding ethnicity data. Denominator is built from data aggregated from each state, aligned with their method. Users are cautioned that states do not uniformly report Indigenous, Pacific Islander and other deaths, and many of these deaths are represented in "Other" race.
COUNTS OR ESTIMATES OF DEATHS BY RACE & ETHNICITY
Since April 9, we’ve been compiling all available data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia of those who have died of COVID-19, by their race and ethnicity. The distribution of these American lives lost during the past roughly four months is shown below.
Users can examine the latest death totals, grouped similarly by racial and ethnic group, for their state(s) of interest below. Depending on the geography, the "Other" group in this graph may include Indigenous people, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders, Multiracial people, those identified as “Other” race, and in a few cases, Asians. (This is due to uneven reporting by states.) Please see the notes below the graph, or our complete data file for additional information including percentage of population and percentage of deaths by group.
SEARCH BY STATE
(Use Shift + Ctrl to select more than one state.)
ALLAlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
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COVID-19 DEATHS BY RACE AND ETHNICITY, THROUGH AUG. 18, 2020
* Includes all available data from Washington, D.C., and the 50 states. States employ varying collection methods regarding ethnicity data. Our sum is built from data aggregated from each state, aligned with their method. Users are cautioned that states do not uniformly report Indigenous, Pacific Islander and other deaths, and many of these deaths are represented in "Other" race.
FOCUS ON INDIGENOUS AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
1,409 Indigenous Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This is an increase of 122 deaths among Indigenous people compared to our last report two weeks earlier. (Note: This total is a known under-count. Numerous states report Indigenous deaths in the Other category, so we cannot see those numbers uniquely.)
Indigenous Americans have experienced 2.1% of all deaths of known race (in 30 states reporting one or more deaths), but represent 1.0% of the population in those states.
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 73 Indigenous people have died from the coronavirus, a mortality rate well above Asians (36) and Whites (40), and somewhat above Latinos (54) and Pacific Islanders (64). Only Blacks (88) have a higher actual mortality rate.
(Users are cautioned that the overall mortality rate for Indigenous people was constructed from 30 states reporting such deaths, while most other rates reflect additional geographies in the U.S.)
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Indigenous people are 3.4 times more likely to have died than Whites, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, Arizona, New Mexico and (especially) Mississippi have seen the greatest absolute disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates between their White and Indigenous residents. Mississippi has experienced 83 deaths among its Indigenous residents, which number fewer than 13,000 in total statewide.
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for Indigenous residents compared to White residents by state, sorted from the largest to smallest gap. Rates are calculated for all states with 15 or more deaths. In every state shown, Indigenous mortality outpaces White mortality.
FOCUS ON ASIAN AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
6,577 Asian Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This is an increase of 607 deaths among Asians compared to our last report two weeks earlier.
Nationwide Asian Americans have experienced 4.1% of all deaths of known race, while they represent 5.7% of the population.
(Notes: Missouri and South Carolina include Asians in their "Other" category. Additionally, Rhode Island—which shows zero Asian deaths to date—may also be doing so. Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Oklahoma and Wisconsin report deaths for Asians and Pacific Islanders jointly, so they are presented together for those eight states. Data for Asians in Florida has been supplemented by lagged CDC reporting, as Florida’s official website does not reveal Asian deaths.)
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 36 Asians have died from the coronavirus, a mortality rate slightly below Whites (40), somewhat below Latinos (54) and Pacific Islanders (64), and well below the rates for Indigenous people (73) and Blacks (88).
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Asians are 1.3 times more likely to have died than Whites, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, Iowa, Nebraska and (especially) New York state have seen the greatest absolute disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates between their White and Asian residents.
Of note, Asian mortality rates are lower than Whites in nine states, most dramatically in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for Asian residents compared to White residents by state, sorted from the largest to smallest (or negative) gap. Rates are calculated for all states with 15 or more deaths.
FOCUS ON BLACK AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
35,932 Black Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This is an increase of 3,230 deaths among Blacks compared to our last report two weeks earlier.
Nationwide, Black Americans have experienced 22.1% of all deaths of known race, but represent 12.4% of the population.
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 88 Blacks have died from the coronavirus, the highest actual mortality rate of all groups—above Asians (36), Whites (40), Latinos (54), Pacific Islanders (64) and Indigenous people (73).
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Blacks are 3.6 times more likely to have died than Whites, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, New Jersey, Michigan and New York state have seen the greatest absolute disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates between their White and Black residents.
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for Black residents compared to White residents by state, sorted from the largest to smallest gap. Rates are calculated for all states with 15 or more deaths. In every state shown, Black mortality outpaces White mortality.
FOCUS ON LATINO AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
32,538 Latino Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This is an increase of 5,160 deaths among Latinos compared to our last report two weeks earlier.
Latino Americans have experienced 20.0% of all deaths of known race, but represent 18.3% of the population.
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 54 Latinos have died from the coronavirus, a mortality rate above Asians (36) and Whites (40), somewhat below Pacific Islanders (64), and well below Indigenous people (73) and Blacks (88).
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Latinos are 3.2 times more likely to have died than Whites, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, the District of Columbia, New Jersey and (especially) New York state have seen the greatest absolute disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates between their White and Latino residents.
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for Latino residents compared to White residents by state, sorted from the largest to smallest gap. Rates are calculated for all states with 15 or more deaths. In every state shown, Latino mortality outpaces White mortality.
Note: Our prior release contained an error that elevated the Latino mortality rate in New York state and reduced it in Pennsylvania. It has been corrected. We regret the error.
FOCUS ON WHITE AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
82,323 White Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This is an increase of 9,228 deaths among Whites compared to our last report two weeks earlier.
White Americans have experienced 50.6% of all deaths with known race, but represent 62.2% of the population.
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 40 Whites have died from the coronavirus, a mortality rate slightly above Asians (36), somewhat below Latinos (54), considerably below Pacific Islanders (64) and Indigenous people (73) and less than half of the rate experienced by Blacks (88).
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Whites have the lowest mortality rate of all racial and ethnic groups, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey have experienced the highest COVID-19 mortality rate among their White residents, while Oregon, West Virginia and Montana have experienced the lowest rates (among states with 15 or more deaths reported).
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for White residents by state, sorted from the highest to lowest toll.
FOCUS ON PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
195 Pacific Islander Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This reflects an increase of 14 deaths among Pacific Islanders compared to our last report two weeks earlier. (Note: This total is a known under-count. Numerous states report Pacific Islander deaths in the Other category, so we cannot see those numbers uniquely.)
Pacific Islander Americans have experienced 0.5% of all deaths of known race (in 15 states reporting one or more deaths), but represent 0.2% of the population in those states.
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 64 Pacific Islanders have died from the coronavirus, an actual mortality rate higher than Asians (36), Whites (40) and Latinos (54), although somewhat below Indigenous Americans (73) and Blacks (88).
(Note: Users are cautioned that the overall mortality rate for Pacific Islander people was constructed from only 15 states reporting such deaths, while other rates reflect additional geographies in the U.S.)
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Pacific Islanders are 3.0 times more likely to have died than Whites, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, Arkansas has the highest COVID-19 mortality rate among its Pacific Islander residents. Thirty-five Pacific Islanders are known to have died of the virus there. Fewer than 10,000 Pacific Islanders in total live in Arkansas, resulting in the exceedingly high death rate.
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for Pacific Islander residents compared to White residents by state, sorted from the largest to smallest gap. Rates are calculated for all states with 15 or more deaths. In every state shown, Pacific Islander mortality outpaces White mortality.
NOTE ABOUT INDIGENOUS, PACIFIC ISLANDER, MULTIRACIAL & OTHER RACE AMERICANS
COVID-19 mortality data for Americans who are Indigenous, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders, Some Other race, or Multiracial is inconsistently reported by many states. Users may download our complete data file to better understand the loss of life in these groups as well. Users are cautioned that Indigenous and Pacific Islander people appear in the “Other” group in many states, along with Multiracial Americans and in a few cases, Asian Americans. We continue to advocate for complete, consistent reporting for all racial and ethnic groups.
WHICH PLACES ARE RELEASING DEATH DATA BY RACE?
The APM Research Lab has independently compiled these mortality data for Washington, D.C. and 47 states. At the time of this writing, only the four states of Hawaii, New Mexico, North Dakota and West Virginia do not yet publicly release COVID-19 mortality data by race and ethnicity. (Note that New Mexico has provided summary data to the APM Research Lab, which appears in our analysis, although the data does not appear on its public website.)
For these states (and Florida, to see additional detail on Asian deaths), we have supplemented our data file using data reported to the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the CDC. Note that these data have additional time lag and have a high degree of suppression, especially for groups other than Whites. Nonetheless, their inclusion improves the picture of COVID-19 mortality for the entire United States.
Racial detail on Americans who have died of COVID-19 was available for 95% of all deaths to date—a vast improvement over the 38% that were known when our Color of Coronavirus project began tracking these data in early April.
As of Tuesday, Aug. 18, more than 170,000 Americans had died of COVID-19. Data about race and ethnicity is available for 95% of these deaths.
However, it should be noted that even among states releasing COVID-19 data by the race of the deceased, the data is often incomplete or nonuniform. Numerous states release only percentages, not counts of deaths, requiring us to estimate the data rather than know precisely how communities have been affected. Many states also fail to report smaller populations uniquely, obscuring the picture for Indigenous Americans, Pacific Islanders and other groups. All of these reporting shortcomings render our picture of the virus’ toll incomplete and make it more difficult to assess the disproportionate impacts on communities.
We call on state and local health departments to release timely data about COVID-19 deaths with as complete racial and ethnic detail as is possible. As the data reporting improves, so too will our understanding of the devastating impact of this disease. This will inform states and communities about how to direct resources more equitably as well.
Our latest update reveals continued wide disparities by race, most dramatically for Black and Indigenous Americans. We also adjust these mortality rates for age, a common and important tool that health researchers use to compare diseases that affect age groups differently. This results in even larger mortality disparities observed between Black, Indigenous, and other populations of color relative to Whites, who experience the lowest age-adjusted rates nationally. Age-adjusting elevates the mortality rate (above the actual rate) for Latinos more than any other group—revealing that COVID-19 is stealing far more Latino lives than we would expect despite this group’s relative youthfulness.
See our work cited in Forbes, CNN, NBC News, Vox, JAMA, Politico, Newsweek, Al Jazeera, the Washington Post, The Hill, The Guardian, the New York Times and numerous other outlets.
The APM Research Lab has independently compiled these death statistics. (Learn more about how). The result is the most robust and up-to-date portrait of COVID-19 mortality by race available anywhere, with a lens on inequitable deaths. We have been tracking these deaths for more than four months now, revealing COVID-19’s growing toll on all Americans, but with the heaviest losses among Black and Indigenous Americans. In addition, Latinos and Blacks have seen the sharpest rise in their actual mortality rates during the past two weeks, as shown below.
KEY FINDINGS (data collected through Aug. 18):
Actual death rates from COVID-19 data (aggregated from all U.S. states and the District of Columbia) have reached new highs for all race groups:
1 in 1,125 Black Americans has died (or 88.4 deaths per 100,000)
1 in 1,375 Indigenous Americans has died (or 73.2 deaths per 100,000)
1 in 1,575 Pacific Islander Americans has died (or 63.9 deaths per 100,000)
1 in 1,850 Latino Americans has died (or 54.4 deaths per 100,000)
1 in 2,450 White Americans has died (or 40.4 deaths per 100,000)
1 in 2,750 Asian Americans has died (or 36.4 deaths per 100,000)
Black Americans continue to experience the highest actual COVID-19 mortality rates nationwide—more than twice as high as the rate for Whites and Asians, who have the lowest actual rates.
If they had died of COVID-19 at the same actual
rate as White Americans, about 19,500 Black,
8,400 Latino, 600 Indigenous, and 70 Pacific Islander Americans would still be alive.
Adjusting the data for age differences in race groups widens the gap in the overall mortality rates between all other groups and Whites, who have the lowest rate. Compared to Whites, the latest U.S. age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rate for:
Blacks is 3.6 times as high
Indigenous people is 3.4 times as high
Latinos is 3.2 times as high
Pacific Islanders is 3.0 times as high, and
Asians is 1.3 times as high.
(A fuller discussion of our indirectly age-adjusted rates follows.)
HOW TO EXAMINE THE DATA:
1. EXPLORE FINDINGS BY GEOGRAPHY, COMPARING GROUPS
We’ve presented the data we’ve collected for the nation overall and each state as:
Actual mortality rates expressed per 100,000;
Indirectly age-adjusted mortality rates per 100,000; and as
Total deaths experienced by each racial and ethnic group.
If you’d like to examine the percentage of deaths compared to the percentage of population by racial group for each state (which previously appeared on this site), you can find this data in our complete data file.
2. EXPLORE FINDINGS BY GROUP, COMPARING GEOGRAPHIES
Examine the differences for one group at a time across all states with available data. For each group, we provide contextual data and a visual comparison against White Americans’ rates using the age-adjusted data, to examine where disparities relative to Whites are the greatest.
INDIGENOUS AMERICANS | ASIAN AMERICANS | BLACK AMERICANS | LATINO AMERICANS |
WHITE AMERICANS | NATIVE HAWAIIAN & OTHER PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS
For more context about the shortcomings of some of the data, please read our note about Indigenous, Pacific Islander, Multiracial and Other Race Americans.
UNDERSTANDING AGE-ADJUSTED MORTALITY RATES
While there are many features of the novel coronavirus that are still unclear, this we know with certainty: The risk of dying from COVID-19 rises sharply with advanced age. About 2 in 100,000 Americans under age 45 have died from the virus, according to data submitted to the CDC through Aug. 8. The COVID-19 death rate for Americans age 45-54 rises to 19 per 100,000; roughly doubles for those age 55-64 (44 per 100,000); and more than doubles among those age 65-74 (103 per 100,000). Among Americans age 75 and older, the death toll exceeds 398 people per 100,000, as shown below.
Due to this steep age gradient to COVID-19 mortality, it is important to consider the varying age distributions of America’s racial and ethnic groups. A higher share of White Americans are in the older age brackets than any other group. To illustrate this, consider that the median age of non-Hispanic White Americans is 44 years, according to the latest Census Bureau data. The comparable figure for all populations of color is considerably lower—for Asians (37), Blacks (34), Pacific Islanders (33), Indigenous (32) and especially Latinos (30), half of whom have not yet reached their 30th birthday.
Even within the same race groups, the age distribution varies—with retirement destination states such as Florida having a much higher share of older adults within their White population, for example.
Black, Indigenous, Pacific Islander and Latino Americans all have a COVID-19 death rate of triple or more White Americans (age-adjusted).
So, to remove the role of age differences from COVID-19 mortality rates, we have also produced age-adjusted rates. Because mortality data is not available for all states by race and age jointly (which is preferred), we have used indirect standardization to calculate these rates. See our NOTES section for details and cautions about our method.
Adjusting the racial data we’ve collected for age differences increases the COVID-19 mortality rate for all racial and ethnic groups except for Whites, who experience a decrease, as shown below.
While Black Americans continue to experience the highest COVID-19 mortality rate after age-adjusting, doing so also widens the gap between Black and White mortality—from 2.2 to 3.6 times as high. Mortality rates for Indigenous people rise to 3.4 times as high as Whites’ mortality impact. Rates for Latinos and Pacific Islanders also rise substantially, to 3.2 and 3.0 times as high as Whites, respectively. Finally, the Asian mortality rate—which was slightly below the White rate—rises above the White death rate (1.3 times as high), when age is taken into account. Put another way, Black, Indigenous, Pacific Islander and Latino Americans all have COVID-19 death rates of triple or more the rate of White Americans (age-adjusted).
What does this mean? It indicates that many younger Americans who are Black, Latino, Indigenous or Pacific Islanders are dying of COVID-19—driving their mortality rates far above White Americans’. Despite their relative youthfulness (a protective factor against COVID), their death rates are elevated. As Brookings Institution has reported, “In every age category, Black people are dying from COVID at roughly the same rate as White people more than a decade older.”
Depending on the community, this may be due to numerous, reinforcing factors related to a higher likelihood of contracting the virus—such as greater workplace exposures, including inability to work from home or no access to sick days; living in geographic areas, housing arrangements including congregate settings (such as nursing homes, group homes, treatment centers, correctional facilities), or accessing public transportation where the virus is more easily spread. It also results from poorer outcomes after acquiring COVID-19—such as resulting from less access to testing; higher presence of underlying health conditions like diabetes, hypertension, obesity and asthma; and receiving delayed or poorer medical care, perhaps because they lack health insurance or distrust health providers or they are simply receiving inferior care. The racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality—due to these compounding, elevated risks from our systems of housing, labor force, health care, and policy responses—are what is termed systemic racism.
It is important to note that, while age-adjusted mortality rates help us remove the influence of age differences in racial groups to examine disparities in outcomes, they are not the actual mortality rates experienced by these groups.
EXAMINE RATES FOR YOUR STATE(S) OF INTEREST:
Review mortality rates—both actual and age-adjusted—for the District of Columbia or any state by changing the dropdown menu below. Rates were not calculated when there were fewer than 15 deaths for a particular group (resulting in a “0” value in the graph below). Rates for Indigenous and Pacific Islander residents could only be calculated for some states. Additionally, rates were not calculated for multiracial people, nor those identified as “Other” race. Please see our complete data file for additional information, including a count of deaths below 15.
SEARCH BY STATE
(Use Shift + Ctrl to select more than one state.)
ALLAlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
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VIEW THE AGE-ADJUSTED RATES
COVID-19 DEATHS PER 100,000 PEOPLE, THROUGH AUG. 18, 2020
* Includes all available data from Washington, D.C., and the 50 states. Users are cautioned that the Indigenous rate is calculated from just 30 states reporting Indigenous deaths, and the Pacific Islander rate from just 15 states reporting such deaths. States employ varying collection methods regarding ethnicity data. Denominator is built from data aggregated from each state, aligned with their method. Users are cautioned that states do not uniformly report Indigenous, Pacific Islander and other deaths, and many of these deaths are represented in "Other" race.
COUNTS OR ESTIMATES OF DEATHS BY RACE & ETHNICITY
Since April 9, we’ve been compiling all available data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia of those who have died of COVID-19, by their race and ethnicity. The distribution of these American lives lost during the past roughly four months is shown below.
Users can examine the latest death totals, grouped similarly by racial and ethnic group, for their state(s) of interest below. Depending on the geography, the "Other" group in this graph may include Indigenous people, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders, Multiracial people, those identified as “Other” race, and in a few cases, Asians. (This is due to uneven reporting by states.) Please see the notes below the graph, or our complete data file for additional information including percentage of population and percentage of deaths by group.
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COVID-19 DEATHS BY RACE AND ETHNICITY, THROUGH AUG. 18, 2020
* Includes all available data from Washington, D.C., and the 50 states. States employ varying collection methods regarding ethnicity data. Our sum is built from data aggregated from each state, aligned with their method. Users are cautioned that states do not uniformly report Indigenous, Pacific Islander and other deaths, and many of these deaths are represented in "Other" race.
FOCUS ON INDIGENOUS AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
1,409 Indigenous Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This is an increase of 122 deaths among Indigenous people compared to our last report two weeks earlier. (Note: This total is a known under-count. Numerous states report Indigenous deaths in the Other category, so we cannot see those numbers uniquely.)
Indigenous Americans have experienced 2.1% of all deaths of known race (in 30 states reporting one or more deaths), but represent 1.0% of the population in those states.
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 73 Indigenous people have died from the coronavirus, a mortality rate well above Asians (36) and Whites (40), and somewhat above Latinos (54) and Pacific Islanders (64). Only Blacks (88) have a higher actual mortality rate.
(Users are cautioned that the overall mortality rate for Indigenous people was constructed from 30 states reporting such deaths, while most other rates reflect additional geographies in the U.S.)
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Indigenous people are 3.4 times more likely to have died than Whites, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, Arizona, New Mexico and (especially) Mississippi have seen the greatest absolute disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates between their White and Indigenous residents. Mississippi has experienced 83 deaths among its Indigenous residents, which number fewer than 13,000 in total statewide.
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for Indigenous residents compared to White residents by state, sorted from the largest to smallest gap. Rates are calculated for all states with 15 or more deaths. In every state shown, Indigenous mortality outpaces White mortality.
FOCUS ON ASIAN AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
6,577 Asian Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This is an increase of 607 deaths among Asians compared to our last report two weeks earlier.
Nationwide Asian Americans have experienced 4.1% of all deaths of known race, while they represent 5.7% of the population.
(Notes: Missouri and South Carolina include Asians in their "Other" category. Additionally, Rhode Island—which shows zero Asian deaths to date—may also be doing so. Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Oklahoma and Wisconsin report deaths for Asians and Pacific Islanders jointly, so they are presented together for those eight states. Data for Asians in Florida has been supplemented by lagged CDC reporting, as Florida’s official website does not reveal Asian deaths.)
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 36 Asians have died from the coronavirus, a mortality rate slightly below Whites (40), somewhat below Latinos (54) and Pacific Islanders (64), and well below the rates for Indigenous people (73) and Blacks (88).
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Asians are 1.3 times more likely to have died than Whites, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, Iowa, Nebraska and (especially) New York state have seen the greatest absolute disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates between their White and Asian residents.
Of note, Asian mortality rates are lower than Whites in nine states, most dramatically in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for Asian residents compared to White residents by state, sorted from the largest to smallest (or negative) gap. Rates are calculated for all states with 15 or more deaths.
FOCUS ON BLACK AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
35,932 Black Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This is an increase of 3,230 deaths among Blacks compared to our last report two weeks earlier.
Nationwide, Black Americans have experienced 22.1% of all deaths of known race, but represent 12.4% of the population.
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 88 Blacks have died from the coronavirus, the highest actual mortality rate of all groups—above Asians (36), Whites (40), Latinos (54), Pacific Islanders (64) and Indigenous people (73).
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Blacks are 3.6 times more likely to have died than Whites, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, New Jersey, Michigan and New York state have seen the greatest absolute disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates between their White and Black residents.
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for Black residents compared to White residents by state, sorted from the largest to smallest gap. Rates are calculated for all states with 15 or more deaths. In every state shown, Black mortality outpaces White mortality.
FOCUS ON LATINO AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
32,538 Latino Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This is an increase of 5,160 deaths among Latinos compared to our last report two weeks earlier.
Latino Americans have experienced 20.0% of all deaths of known race, but represent 18.3% of the population.
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 54 Latinos have died from the coronavirus, a mortality rate above Asians (36) and Whites (40), somewhat below Pacific Islanders (64), and well below Indigenous people (73) and Blacks (88).
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Latinos are 3.2 times more likely to have died than Whites, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, the District of Columbia, New Jersey and (especially) New York state have seen the greatest absolute disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates between their White and Latino residents.
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for Latino residents compared to White residents by state, sorted from the largest to smallest gap. Rates are calculated for all states with 15 or more deaths. In every state shown, Latino mortality outpaces White mortality.
Note: Our prior release contained an error that elevated the Latino mortality rate in New York state and reduced it in Pennsylvania. It has been corrected. We regret the error.
FOCUS ON WHITE AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
82,323 White Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This is an increase of 9,228 deaths among Whites compared to our last report two weeks earlier.
White Americans have experienced 50.6% of all deaths with known race, but represent 62.2% of the population.
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 40 Whites have died from the coronavirus, a mortality rate slightly above Asians (36), somewhat below Latinos (54), considerably below Pacific Islanders (64) and Indigenous people (73) and less than half of the rate experienced by Blacks (88).
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Whites have the lowest mortality rate of all racial and ethnic groups, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey have experienced the highest COVID-19 mortality rate among their White residents, while Oregon, West Virginia and Montana have experienced the lowest rates (among states with 15 or more deaths reported).
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for White residents by state, sorted from the highest to lowest toll.
FOCUS ON PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS
Lives lost to date
195 Pacific Islander Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through Tuesday, Aug. 18. This reflects an increase of 14 deaths among Pacific Islanders compared to our last report two weeks earlier. (Note: This total is a known under-count. Numerous states report Pacific Islander deaths in the Other category, so we cannot see those numbers uniquely.)
Pacific Islander Americans have experienced 0.5% of all deaths of known race (in 15 states reporting one or more deaths), but represent 0.2% of the population in those states.
Actual mortality rate
For each 100,000 Americans (of their respective group), about 64 Pacific Islanders have died from the coronavirus, an actual mortality rate higher than Asians (36), Whites (40) and Latinos (54), although somewhat below Indigenous Americans (73) and Blacks (88).
(Note: Users are cautioned that the overall mortality rate for Pacific Islander people was constructed from only 15 states reporting such deaths, while other rates reflect additional geographies in the U.S.)
Age-adjusted mortality rate
Nationwide, Pacific Islanders are 3.0 times more likely to have died than Whites, when age is taken into account.
Adjusted for age, Arkansas has the highest COVID-19 mortality rate among its Pacific Islander residents. Thirty-five Pacific Islanders are known to have died of the virus there. Fewer than 10,000 Pacific Islanders in total live in Arkansas, resulting in the exceedingly high death rate.
The graph below shows age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates for Pacific Islander residents compared to White residents by state, sorted from the largest to smallest gap. Rates are calculated for all states with 15 or more deaths. In every state shown, Pacific Islander mortality outpaces White mortality.
NOTE ABOUT INDIGENOUS, PACIFIC ISLANDER, MULTIRACIAL & OTHER RACE AMERICANS
COVID-19 mortality data for Americans who are Indigenous, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders, Some Other race, or Multiracial is inconsistently reported by many states. Users may download our complete data file to better understand the loss of life in these groups as well. Users are cautioned that Indigenous and Pacific Islander people appear in the “Other” group in many states, along with Multiracial Americans and in a few cases, Asian Americans. We continue to advocate for complete, consistent reporting for all racial and ethnic groups.
WHICH PLACES ARE RELEASING DEATH DATA BY RACE?
The APM Research Lab has independently compiled these mortality data for Washington, D.C. and 47 states. At the time of this writing, only the four states of Hawaii, New Mexico, North Dakota and West Virginia do not yet publicly release COVID-19 mortality data by race and ethnicity. (Note that New Mexico has provided summary data to the APM Research Lab, which appears in our analysis, although the data does not appear on its public website.)
For these states (and Florida, to see additional detail on Asian deaths), we have supplemented our data file using data reported to the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the CDC. Note that these data have additional time lag and have a high degree of suppression, especially for groups other than Whites. Nonetheless, their inclusion improves the picture of COVID-19 mortality for the entire United States.
Racial detail on Americans who have died of COVID-19 was available for 95% of all deaths to date—a vast improvement over the 38% that were known when our Color of Coronavirus project began tracking these data in early April.
As of Tuesday, Aug. 18, more than 170,000 Americans had died of COVID-19. Data about race and ethnicity is available for 95% of these deaths.
However, it should be noted that even among states releasing COVID-19 data by the race of the deceased, the data is often incomplete or nonuniform. Numerous states release only percentages, not counts of deaths, requiring us to estimate the data rather than know precisely how communities have been affected. Many states also fail to report smaller populations uniquely, obscuring the picture for Indigenous Americans, Pacific Islanders and other groups. All of these reporting shortcomings render our picture of the virus’ toll incomplete and make it more difficult to assess the disproportionate impacts on communities.
We call on state and local health departments to release timely data about COVID-19 deaths with as complete racial and ethnic detail as is possible. As the data reporting improves, so too will our understanding of the devastating impact of this disease. This will inform states and communities about how to direct resources more equitably as well.