Special Report

This Is the County in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area with the Most Deaths from COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: December 3, 2021 4:45 am

Last Updated: December 3, 2021 11:11 pm

Despite the ongoing vaccination effort, new daily cases of COVID-19 are beginning to rise once again in parts of the United States and the virus continues to claim lives. So far, 774,868 Americans have died from the virus — more than the total number of Americans killed in World War I and World War II combined.

In the St. Louis metropolitan area, which covers parts of Missouri and Illinois, a total of 6,177 deaths have been attributed to the virus, equal to 220 fatalities for every 100,000 people. Nationwide, 237 deaths have been attributed to the virus per 100,000 people.

Though deaths attributable to the virus are less common across the metro area than they are nationwide, this is not the case in some parts of the city.

The broader St. Louis metro area comprises 15 counties or county equivalents — and of them, Monroe County has had the most COVID-19 fatalities per capita. So far, the per capita coronavirus death rate in Monroe County stands at 309 for every 100,000 people.

Though it has the highest per capita death rate in the St. Louis metro area, Monroe County ranks among the middle 50% of all U.S. counties or county equivalents by COVID-19 death rate per capita.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Dec. 1, 2021.

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