Coronavirus tracked: How Covid-19 deaths in the US compare by race and ethnicity
Death rate of black Americans is nearly 2.5-times that of white Americans
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Your support makes all the difference.The US has the highest number of deaths from the Covid-19 coronavirus, accounting for more than a quarter of all worldwide fatalities.
There have been nearly 107,000 confirmed deaths across all US states, but looking more closely at the numbers reveals a significant racial disparity within the data.
The mortality rate for black Americans is more than double that of any other race in the country, according to figures gathered by APM Research Lab.
With an average of 55 deaths per 100,000 black Americans, the death rate is nearly 2.5-times higher than that of white Americans nationwide.
APM Research Lab gathered race and ethnicity data from 40 states (and the District of Columbia) leading up to 26 May, revealing the vast over-representation of black Americans from Covid-19 deaths.
Data from individual states reveals even greater disproportionality, with black residents in Kansas seven-times more likely to have died from coronavirus than white residents.
In only six states — Arizona, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Washington — is the death rate of black residents roughly proportional to their population size.
Out of the 41 jurisdictions examined, black Americans were over represented in 28 of them in terms of Covid-19 deaths.
Black Americans account for 13 per cent of the US population, yet represent 25 per cent of all coronavirus deaths.
APM Research lab noted that if black Americans had died of Covid-19 at the same rate as white Americans, around 13,000 black Americans would still be alive.
“Collectively, they represent 12.9 per cent of the population but have suffered 25 per cent of deaths,” APM Research Lab wrote in a blog post detailing the research.
“Since we began reporting these data, black Americans’ Covid-19 mortality rates across the US has never fallen below twice that of all other groups, revealing a durable pattern of disproportionality.”
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