Report Shows Several Arizona Counties With High Poverty And COVID Death Rates

By Shondiin Silversmith, Arizona Mirror

Six Arizona counties ended up as part of a report that showcased the top 300 counties nationwide with high poverty and COVID-19 death rates, with Apache County landing at No. 17.

The counties were included in a report by the Poor People’s Campaign, which advocates for public policies aimed at helping economically disadvantaged communities — particularly those of color. The report connects COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. to both poverty and race, according to a press release.

“The COVID-19 disparities among counties across the US are striking,” Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, national co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, said in a statement. “This report shows clearly that COVID-19 became a poor people’s pandemic.”

Part of the report’s key findings includes how people living in poorer counties died at nearly two times the rate of people who lived in richer counties during the pandemic.

This was determined by grouping counties based on their median household income into ten groups with equal population size, the report says. Doing so revealed that death rates in the highest income group are half what the death rates are in the lowest income group.

In Arizona, Apache County had the highest poverty and COVID-19 death rate, with 801 deaths per 100,000 people. (There were 576 deaths in the rural county in northeastern Arizona)

Some 60 percent of people in Apache County make less than 200 percent of the federal poverty limit. For a family of four, that means the household earns less than $55,500 a year. More than 70 percent of the county’s population is made up of Native Americans.

The other counties in Arizona included in the report are Gila, La Paz, Mohave, Navajo and Yuma.

The report’s findings include over 3,000 counties and shares data on COVID-19 deaths, income, race and other characteristics.

“Income and wealth information are not systematically collected for people who have died or fallen ill from COVID-19 in the US,” the report stated. “There is currently no systematic way to know the poverty status of those who died from the virus.”

“Despite this data gap, various efforts have been made at the national, state, and county level to estimate the effects of COVID-19 on people living in poverty,” according to the report. “Research at the county level shows that rural poor counties experienced the highest cumulative COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents from September 2020 to January 2022.”

The poorest counties in America are home to nearly 27 percent of all Indigenous people, 15 percent of all Black people, 13 percent of all Hispanic people, 9 percent of all white people and 2 percent of all Asian people.

“Even in a global pandemic, there hasn’t been a systematic assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on poor and low-income communities,” Bishop William Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, said in a statement. “COVID-19 data collection does not include data on poverty, income, or occupation, alongside race and pandemic outcomes.”

The report was released on Monday by the Poor People’s Campaign in collaboration with the Kairos Center, Repairers of the Breach, Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Howard University.

“The Poor People’s Pandemic Digital Report and Intersectional Analysis addresses this knowledge gap and exposes the unnecessary deaths by mapping community characteristics and connecting them with COVID-19 outcomes,” Barber added.

A key finding from the report indicated that, during the deadliest phases of the pandemic, poorer counties saw many times more deaths than wealthier counties.

“This analysis compares U.S. counties from the poorest 10 percent to the richest 10 percent and shows that, overall, the poorest counties have grieved nearly two times the losses of wealthiest counties,” Shailly Gupta Barnes, policy director for the Poor People’s Campaign, said in a statement. “During the deadliest waves of the pandemic (winter 2020-2021 and Omicron) death rates were even higher — four and a half and three times as high —in the poorest counties.”

Additionally, the counties with the highest death rates had one and a half times higher poverty rates than counties with lower death rates.

“This pandemic report aims to shed light on the unequal burden of the pandemic, and to help point the way towards a fairer, healthier and more prosperous nation,” Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, president of SDSN, said in a statement.

The Arizona Mirror, an independent, nonprofit news organization, amplifies the voices of Arizonans whose stories are unheard; shines a light on the relationships between people, power and policy, holds public officials accountable; and provides a platform for progressive opinions. Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.