This Is How Many People Have Died From COVID-19 in Tennessee

Special Report

Published: February 27, 2022 4:30 am

Since the first death attributable to COVID-19 was reported in the United States on Feb. 29, 2020, an estimated 928,350 Americans have died — and that number continues to grow every day.

Adjusting for population, there have been a total of 284 COVID-19-related deaths for every 100,000 Americans nationwide. In Tennessee, deaths attributable to the coronavirus per capita are even more common than they are nationwide. Across the state, 23,990 people have died from the coronavirus, equal to about 354 deaths for every 100,000 people. Of all states — and Washington D.C. — Tennessee has the fifth highest death rate per capita.

Any number of factors contribute to variations in COVID-19 fatalities per capita across the United States. One of them is the per capita infection rate. Just as the number of deaths attributable to the virus per capita is higher in Tennessee than it is nationwide, COVID-19 infections per capita are too.

To date, there have been 1,995,901 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Tennessee, equal to 29,482 infections per 100,000 people — compared to 23,794 infections per 100,000 people nationwide.

Though it is not always the case, states with higher than average COVID-19 deaths per capita are often also home to larger high-risk populations. One such group is retirement-age Americans, who are at least 90 times more likely to die from the virus if infected than those in the 18 to 29 age group. In Tennessee, 16.7% of the population are 65 and older. Nationwide, 16.5% of the population fall into that age group.

All COVID-19 data used in the story is current as of Feb. 23, 2022.

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

Rank	State	Deaths per 100,000 people	Total deaths	Infections per 100,000 people	Total infections	65 and older pop.
1	Mississippi	396	11,836	26,302	785,528	16.4%
2	Arizona	385	27,622	27,437	1,967,704	18.0%
3	New Jersey	367	32,711	24,233	2,158,820	16.6%
4	Alabama	367	17,938	26,067	1,274,129	17.4%
5	Tennessee	354	23,990	29,482	1,995,901	16.7%
6	Louisiana	353	16,465	24,870	1,158,918	16.0%
7	West Virginia	342	6,183	26,853	484,923	20.5%
8	Arkansas	341	10,292	27,052	815,299	17.4%
9	Michigan	340	33,998	23,441	2,343,162	17.7%
10	New York	340	66,466	25,048	4,894,882	16.9%
11	Indiana	337	22,575	25,057	1,676,797	16.1%
12	Massachusetts	335	23,109	24,068	1,661,206	17.0%
13	Pennsylvania	334	42,789	21,437	2,745,403	18.7%
14	Georgia	332	34,896	23,343	2,455,573	14.3%
15	South Carolina	325	16,537	28,505	1,449,247	18.2%
16	New Mexico	324	6,794	24,284	508,863	18.0%
17	Oklahoma	324	12,767	25,765	1,015,935	16.1%
18	Florida	324	68,955	27,185	5,790,325	20.9%
19	Rhode Island	322	3,402	33,539	354,617	17.7%
20	South Dakota	314	2,772	26,632	234,961	17.4%
21	Nevada	313	9,508	22,322	677,345	16.2%
22	Kentucky	305	13,647	28,295	1,264,329	16.9%
23	Ohio	304	35,493	22,633	2,645,679	17.5%
24	Missouri	300	18,351	22,654	1,387,860	17.2%
25	Wyoming	292	1,689	26,670	154,082	17.1%
26	Montana	292	3,105	24,637	261,722	19.5%
27	Connecticut	290	10,374	20,170	720,618	17.6%
28	Texas	287	82,435	22,707	6,517,258	12.9%
29	North Dakota	286	2,174	31,175	236,955	15.8%
30	Illinois	285	36,360	23,653	3,013,709	16.1%
31	Iowa	284	8,948	23,663	746,825	17.5%
32	Delaware	279	2,695	26,387	255,210	19.5%
33	Kansas	272	7,917	26,209	763,078	16.4%
34	Idaho	267	4,676	23,630	414,513	16.2%
35	Maryland	232	14,049	16,530	998,888	15.9%
36	Wisconsin	225	13,086	26,950	1,566,767	17.5%
37	Minnesota	216	12,131	25,033	1,404,662	16.3%
38	North Carolina	214	22,237	24,747	2,569,681	16.7%
39	Virginia	214	18,231	19,145	1,630,683	15.9%
40	California	210	82,873	22,416	8,867,026	14.8%
41	Colorado	205	11,681	22,853	1,301,611	14.7%
42	Nebraska	202	3,901	23,475	452,901	16.1%
43	Washington D.C.	192	1,314	19,532	133,697	12.4%
44	New Hampshire	172	2,333	21,652	293,697	18.6%
45	Oregon	154	6,456	16,368	685,953	18.2%
46	Alaska	150	1,108	30,950	228,237	12.4%
47	Washington	150	11,316	18,719	1,410,596	15.9%
48	Maine	146	1,960	16,446	220,117	21.3%
49	Utah	138	4,359	29,048	918,222	11.4%
50	Hawaii	91	1,292	16,117	228,934	19.0%
51	Vermont	88	554	16,464	103,116	20.1%