Open AccessVisualizing the Geographic and Demographic Distribution of COVID-19
Author(s) -
Patrick Denice,
Kate H. Choi,
Michael Haan,
Anna Zajacova
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
socius
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2378-0231
DOI - 10.1177/2378023120948715
Subject(s) - covid-19 , pandemic , demography , ethnic group , geography , census , bivariate analysis , race (biology) , distribution (mathematics) , medicine , disease , population , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty) , statistics , sociology , virology , gender studies , mathematics , pathology , anthropology , mathematical analysis
Whereas African Americans are disproportionately among the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic’s sick and dead, less is known about whether some racial/ethnic groups are more likely to be affected in Canada. In this data visualization, the authors address two issues limiting understanding of the spatial and demographic distribution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: (1) COVID-19 infection and death counts are collected at a very high level of geographic aggregation, and (2) these counts are not tallied by sociodemographic group, including race/ethnicity. The authors use a bivariate choropleth map to illustrate the correlation between COVID-19 infections and the percentage of residents who are Black across census subdivisions. Canada is more similar to the United States than expected in this respect: areas with higher shares of Black Canadians also see more infections.