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Nonmetropolitan counties completed an average of 30,000 vaccinations per day from July 6-15. That raised the rural vaccination rate to 35.5% of the total nonmetropolitan population, an increase of 0.7 percentage points since the last Daily Yonder vaccination report.

The vaccination rate in metropolitan counties increased at a slightly quicker pace, rising by 0.9 percentage points to 46.2% of the total population.

Utah had the highest percentage-point increase in rural vaccinations, raising its rate by 5.6 points to 37.4%. Utah’s metropolitan vaccination rate climbed even more, rising 6.2 percentage points to 42.9%.

Mississippi raised its rural vaccination rate by 3.6 points to 31.8% from July 6-15. The state’s metropolitan vaccination rate climbed by 3.8 points to 34.5%. Mississippi, which previously ranked 41st in the nation for its rural vaccination rate, climbed to 37th.

Other states that added a percentage point or more to their rural vaccination rate last week were:

  • Alaska, up 2.4 points to 49.3%.
  • Hawaii, up 2.2 points to 55.3%, the highest rural vaccination rate of any state outside New England.
  • And West Virginia, up 1 point to 20.3%.

States with the smallest increases in their rural vaccination rates were Georgia, Virginia, Nevada, North Dakota, and Ohio. Each of those states increased their rural vaccination rate by about 0.3 points. Those increases could be higher, especially in Georgia and Virginia, where the number of unallocated vaccinations is high. Unallocated vaccinations are not assigned to a county and aren’t included in our metropolitan/nonmetropolitan analysis.

Georgia continued to have the lowest rural vaccination rate, at 13.2%, although unallocated vaccinations likely mean the real rate is higher.

The gap between the nonmetropolitan and metropolitan vaccination rates climbed by 0.1 point last week, to 10.7 points.

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