The media presents COVID-19 confirmed and fatal case data to the public in several ways. These include daily increases, seven-day averages, cases and deaths per 1,000, and states and counties where the disease has spread the fastest. One of the most staggering numbers shows how many people actually have died of the disease in America’s largest counties. In many, the figure has surged into the thousands.
As would be expected, the counties with the most coronavirus deaths are often those with the largest populations. Since large cities are rarely directly adjacent, these counties tend to be geographically distant from one another. The exception to this trend are the numbers of fatal cases in and around New York City. Each of the city’s five boroughs is also a county. The fatality count in four of these is among the top 20 counties by that measure. COVID-19 ravaged the city, particularly in March and April. Notably, several of the other counties on the list of those with the highest fatal case counts are adjacent to New York City or nearby. This includes three counties in New Jersey. These totals mean that New York City was at the center of seven of the 20 counties with the highest fatal case counts.
Most of the other counties with the highest fatal case counts are home to America’s major cities. Cook County, home to Chicago, has the second-highest number of fatal cases. Maricopa County is also high on the list and includes Phoenix. Wayne County is on the list, and Detroit is within its borders. Harris County has borders that are nearly identical to Houston.
Each of the 20 counties on the list has had at least 1,500 fatal cases. That is more than the total figure for all of Oklahoma. At the top of the list, Los Angeles County has had 7,097 deaths. It is also the largest county in the country by population at 10,098,052. Cook County ranked second by fatal cases at 5,517 and is the second-largest U.S. county by population at 5,223,719.
These are the 20 American counties with the most fatal cases.
| County | State | Population | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | California | 10,098,052 | 7,097 |
| Cook | Illinois | 5,223,719 | 5,517 |
| Queens | New York | 2,298,513 | 5,140 |
| Kings | New York | 2,600,747 | 5,129 |
| Miami-Dade | Florida | 2,715,516 | 3,675 |
| Maricopa | Arizona | 4,253,913 | 3,632 |
| Bronx | New York | 1,437,872 | 3,403 |
| Wayne | Michigan | 1,761,382 | 3,065 |
| Harris | Texas | 4,602,523 | 2,823 |
| Middlesex | Massachusetts | 1,595,192 | 2,290 |
| Nassau | New York | 1,356,564 | 2,216 |
| Essex | New Jersey | 793,555 | 2,148 |
| New York | New York | 1,632,480 | 2,126 |
| Bergen | New Jersey | 929,999 | 2,064 |
| Suffolk | New York | 1,487,901 | 2,021 |
| Philadelphia | Pennsylvania | 1,575,522 | 1,897 |
| Hidalgo | Texas | 849,389 | 1,726 |
| Palm Beach | Florida | 1,446,277 | 1,599 |
| Clark | Nevada | 2,141,574 | 1,540 |
| Hudson | New Jersey | 668,631 | 1,534 |
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