The Carolinas Ranked Among the Most Vulnerable Populations to Coronavirus

1316

With nearly 75 percent of patients hospitalized for coronavirus being at least 50 years old, and around 90 percent having pre-existing conditions, it’s important for states with larger vulnerable populations to have greater protective measures. Vulnerability isn’t just health-related, though, as many people are harmed by the economic effects of the pandemic. To show where the biggest concentrations of “at-risk” people live, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the States with the Most Vulnerable Populations to Coronavirus.

To identify which states have the highest concentration of vulnerable people, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 28 key metrics in 3 overall categories: medical vulnerability, housing vulnerability and financial vulnerability. Our data set ranges from the share of the population aged 65 and older to the share of the homeless population that is unsheltered and the share of the entire population living in poverty.

South Carolina was ranked the 9th lowest and the list and North Carolina was ranked the 11th lowest, along with having the lowest unemployment recipiency rate in the nation at 9.32 percent, which is 6.1 times lower than in New Jersey, the highest at 57.17 percent.

States with the Most Vulnerable Populations to COVID-19

Overall Rank State Total Score ‘Medical Vulnerability’ Rank ‘Housing Vulnerability’ Rank ‘Financial Vulnerability’ Rank
1 West Virginia 72.32 1 23 8
2 Louisiana 65.31 5 30 1
3 Mississippi 64.66 6 12 2
4 Arkansas 63.12 4 5 15
5 Alabama 62.94 3 20 9
6 Kentucky 61.37 2 26 16
7 Florida 60.50 8 13 3
8 Tennessee 58.10 7 22 5
9 South Carolina 55.82 9 16 11
10 Georgia 55.50 11 17 4
11 North Carolina 51.59 14 28 6
12 New Mexico 50.86 24 3 10
13 Oklahoma 50.82 15 18 14
14 Delaware 49.42 10 43 24
15 Texas 49.21 17 15 12
16 Indiana 48.18 12 49 13
17 Arizona 47.33 25 10 7
18 Nevada 47.11 18 11 26
19 Missouri 45.65 22 21 20
20 Michigan 45.44 13 47 31
21 Ohio 45.03 16 36 29
22 Maine 44.69 21 24 27
23 Oregon 44.61 27 2 35
24 Maryland 42.62 20 44 28
25 Kansas 41.76 23 29 33
26 Pennsylvania 41.75 19 33 38
27 New York 40.48 26 48 17
28 California 40.13 41 4 19
29 District of Columbia 39.50 28 51 18
30 Virginia 39.11 29 42 23
31 South Dakota 38.39 37 14 30
32 New Hampshire 37.93 36 35 21
33 Hawaii 37.25 38 1 47
34 Rhode Island 36.39 31 50 22
35 Alaska 36.21 45 7 25
36 Illinois 36.01 33 40 32
37 Idaho 35.44 44 9 34
38 North Dakota 35.28 30 37 43
39 Nebraska 34.81 32 41 36
40 New Jersey 34.80 35 32 40
41 Washington 34.13 42 6 44
42 Wisconsin 32.70 39 34 37
43 Wyoming 31.97 48 19 39
44 Connecticut 31.22 40 31 42
45 Iowa 30.83 34 39 51
46 Montana 30.52 49 8 45
47 Vermont 29.85 46 27 46
48 Massachusetts 27.67 43 45 49
49 Minnesota 26.77 47 38 50
50 Colorado 23.33 51 25 41
51 Utah 21.90 50 46 48

Comments

comments