Special Report

This Is the County in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: October 27, 2021 5:45 am

Last Updated: October 27, 2021 5:48 pm

Following a months long surge driven by the delta variant, new daily cases of COVID-19 are falling once again in the United States. To date, 45,027,013 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 728,404 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 St. Louis metropolitan area, which covers parts of Missouri and Illinois, a total of 378,474 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 13,490 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — in line with the national rate of 13,763 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are closely in line with the national per capita infection rate in St. Louis, there are still parts of the metro area where the per capita infection rate is relatively low.

The broader St. Louis metro area comprises 15 counties or county equivalents — and of them, St. Louis, an independent city in Missouri has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 31,207 infections in St. Louis, or 10,026 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does St. Louis City have the lowest per capita infection rate in the St. Louis metro area, it also has a relatively low per capita fatality rate.

There have been a total of 193 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in St. Louis, below the 211 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire St. Louis metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Oct. 25, 2021.

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