InOCULATION nation: Available COVID-19 VACCINE DATA SHOWS UNEVEN ACCESS BY RACE and ethnicity
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by MATT HANSON | May 21, 2021
Black and Latino Americans—who have experienced among the highest age-adjusted mortality rates during the COVID-19 pandemic while at the same time recording the lowest vaccination rates—continue to narrow the gaps between their respective rates of inoculation and those of other racial groups, according to APM Research Lab’s latest analysis.
Our aggregation of data published May 17 by the District of Columbia and 33 state health departments finds that the rates of vaccination for both Black Americans (26.7%) and Latino Americans (30.6%) are within five percentage points of the next highest rate for the first time since we began this analysis in February.
On the other end of the inoculation spectrum, Asian Americans’ lead in vaccination rates continues to widen: their top rate of 54.7% is now 13 percentage points ahead of the next highest rate, that of White Americans (41%).
Meanwhile, despite two weeks of stagnant growth in their inoculation rates, Indigenous Americans held onto the third spot in our analysis (31.8%), but only by a meager margin (+1.2 percentage points).
Indigenous Americans’ relatively high vaccination rates and initial steady improvement therein had been heartening news, but in our past three updates their lead has all but evaporated amid stagnating rates across all geographies reporting. This slowdown is particularly concerning given that Indigenous Americans have the highest COVID-19 mortality rate of any major racial or ethnic group.
Timely and comparable vaccination data by race remains spotty across states. As of May 17, there are still 17 states without comparable and timely data on the number and share of their racial and ethnic groups’ vaccination rates. That absence of data from roughly a third of all states hampers our full understanding of inoculation efforts and equity. (Notably, these data still do not include populous states such as Illinois or New Jersey. See this table for a list of geographies included. Additional states releasing data after May 17 will be included in subsequent updates.)
Furthermore, the data have poor racial coverage even among the states in our analysis—as the race and ethnicity is unknown for more than 17.2 million vaccinated persons (15.3%) from the states included in our analysis. Data gaps notwithstanding, the available picture is concerning for the racially equitable distribution of vaccines.
At least some of the racial disparity in vaccination rates is likely explained by the prioritization of older Americans during the initial vaccine rollout. The White population is generally older than other racial and ethnic groups.
Explore states’ data by racial and ethnic group
Examine the percentage of all residents who have been vaccinated by race and ethnicity for all states that have released data below, or review a table with all available data on vaccinated persons by each race and ethnicity as well as unknown race.
Jump to: ASIAN AMERICANS | BLACK AMERICANS | INDIGENOUS AMERICANS
LATINO AMERICANS | WHITE AMERICANS | TABLE FOR ALL GROUPS
ASIAN AMERICANS
With a COVID-19 vaccination rate of 54.6%, Asian Americans are the most likely group to have been vaccinated in our latest analysis.
Among the 32 states with available data for Asian Americans, New Mexico (69.3%), New York (65.4%) and Iowa (62.1%) lead in vaccination rates.
Virginia (20.7%) and Pennsylvania (3.4%) trail all states in this analysis.
BLACK AMERICANS
Black Americans’ rate of COVID-19 vaccination across all states with available data is only 26.7%, the lowest of all racial and ethnic groups.
Massachusetts (41.4%) leads all states in vaccinating Black residents, followed by Vermont (37.8%) and Maryland (36.6%).
Pennsylvania (17%) and Hawaii (10%) have the lowest vaccination rates of Black residents.
INDIGENOUS AMERICANS
With a vaccination rate of 31.8% across all states providing data, Indigenous Americans boast the third-highest COVID-19 vaccination rate of all racial and ethnic groups.
More than one-quarter of all Indigenous Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine in 16 states, led by Rhode Island (51.4%), Washington (49.9%) and Virginia (47.9%).
At less than 10% of its Indigenous population vaccinated, Vermont (6.3%) trails all other states as the only state with a vaccinated rate in single digits.
LATINO AMERICANS
Latino Americans have the second-lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate across all states with comparable data, with just 30.6% of Latino residents vaccinated across the District of Columbia and 31 states reporting comparable data.
With 45.8% of its Latino population vaccinated (one or more doses), Iowa leads all states, followed by Maine (37.6%) and Missouri (36.7%).
At the other end of the spectrum, Arizona (18.3%) and Idaho (14.8%) have the lowest Latino vaccination rates in this analysis.
WHITE AMERICANS
White Americans have the second-highest rate of COVID-19 vaccinations, with 41% vaccinated across the 34 geographies that have released comparable vaccination data.
At least 1 in 4 White residents has been vaccinated in all of the geographies providing comparable data, led by Massachusetts (58.3%), Vermont (58.1%) and California (54.1%).
Only four states have a vaccination rate of less than 30% among their White residents: Alabama (28.1%), Hawaii (27%), Virginia (25.8%), and Idaho (24.7%).
Early COVID-19 vaccine eligibility varied by state
While vaccination eligibility now includes everyone age 16 or older nationwide, and vaccines are now available to adolescents age 12 to 15 in many places, earlier vaccine priorities may still be impacting current racial and ethnic difference in vaccination. Based on initial non-binding CDC guidance, older adults had been prioritized in all states. However, the minimum age requirement varied, from age 75 and above in some places to as low as age 60 and above in others. States had also given earliest access to the vaccine to health care workers and (in most states) long-term care residents.
At the beginning of the vaccination rollout, grocery store workers, police officers, other essential workers, veterans and high-risk adults were prioritized in various combinations—resulting in a patchwork of uneven vaccination eligibility rules state-to-state. In some cases, county-specific eligibility rules were also implemented.
The Urban Institute reported in February that while “25 states articulated their intention to consider racial and ethnic equity in their vaccine distributions, many have shifted to age-based criteria amid pressure to distribute vaccines quicker.” However, many other states or localities have stressed racial equity in their vaccination plans, such as in Chicago under Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Now that coverage has opened to everyone age 16 and over, states are pressing on toward a goal of vaccinating as many residents as possible. However, experts now caution that herd immunity may be unattainable in the United States due to vaccine holdouts and mutations in the COVID-19 virus.
Notes and methods
Data retrieved from state health department websites on May 17, 2021.
In the case where data has been presented only as percentages, we have estimated people vaccinated from totals. California's total was interpolated from published CDC data.
Denominators for Asian, Black, Latino and White groups were obtained from the 2019 American Community Survey for the total population. Denominators for Indigenous populations by state were obtained from the 2015-2019 American Community Survey, to increase reliability. We regret that the population data available for Pacific Islanders was deemed too unreliable to publish.
Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina and Virginia report data for vaccinations among Asian and Pacific Islanders jointly. Denominators include both groups for alignment in these three states.
Denominators were aligned with the states’ methods of reporting ethnicity. The following states report Latino ethnicity overlapping with race groups, resulting in double-counting: Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin. The following states report Latino ethnicity separately from non-Hispanic race groups: Arizona, Colorado, New York, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington. California and Virginia’s data presentation is unclear, but percentages have been calculated with non-Hispanic race groups until we receive clarification from the states.
Data for Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, South Carolina and West Virginia were omitted because they were not presented in a comparable manner to other states (i.e., showing all persons who had received one or more shots by race and ethnicity.)