Special Report

These are the Counties in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metro Area with the Most Deaths from COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: July 23, 2021 5:15 am

The ongoing vaccination effort is allowing life in the United States to return to some degree of normalcy. So far, the virus has claimed 603,880 American lives — more than the total number of Americans killed in World War I and World War II combined.

In the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metropolitan area, which covers parts of Oregon and Washington, a total of 1,520 deaths have been attributed to the virus, equal to 63 fatalities for every 100,000 people. Nationwide, 185 deaths have been attributed to the virus per 100,000 people.

Though deaths attributable to the virus are less common across the metro area than they are nationwide, some parts of the metro area have more deaths per capita than others.

The broader Portland metro area comprises seven counties or county equivalents — and of them, Multnomah County has had the most COVID-19 fatalities per capita. So far, the per capita coronavirus death rate in Multnomah County stands at 77 for every 100,000 people.

Though it has the highest per capita death rate in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro area, Multnomah County ranks among the bottom 25% of all U.S. counties or county equivalents with at least one COVID-19 fatality by death rate per capita.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of July 20, 2021.

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