Special Report

This is the County in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 9, 2021 5:30 am

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 32,167,970 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 572,987 have died as a result. On a per capita basis, the U.S. has one of the highest known infections rates in the world.

In the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metropolitan area, which covers parts of North Carolina and South Carolina, a total of 273,466 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 11,058 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 9,832 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are higher in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia than they are nationwide, some parts of the metro area are safer than others.

The broader Charlotte metro area comprises 10 counties or county equivalents — and of them, Mecklenburg County in North Carolina has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 110,693 infections in Mecklenburg County, or 10,499 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Mecklenburg County have the lowest per capita infection rate in the Charlotte metro area, it also has a relatively low per capita fatality rate.

There have been a total of 89 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Mecklenburg County, below the 123 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of May 6, 2021.

These are all the counties in North Carolina where COVID-19 is slowing (and where it’s still getting worse).