93 US cities that need vaccinations against COVID-19 the most

93 US cities that need vaccinations against COVID-19 the most
(Photo credit: Shutterstock.com / Andrey_Popov)

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a big toll on the U.S., effective vaccines will soon be available. We could see widespread distribution of those vaccines by April 2021, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Not everyone will have to wait that long for a vaccine, though. Frontline health care workers may start receiving doses in December. Other groups of people among the first to be vaccinated will be people especially at risk for serious symptoms, such as elderly people in nursing homes and people who have underlying health conditions like heart disease or cancer. Essential workers, such as grocery store employees and public transit drivers, are also close to the front of the line.


In order to determine the cities that will need the most initial COVID-19 vaccinations, WalletHub compared more than 90 large cities across 13 key metrics. Their data set looks at factors like each city’s share of frontline health care workers, nursing home residents, essential workers, residents diagnosed with various diseases and more.

Cities That Need the Most Initial COVID-19 Vaccinations


Overall Rank
(1=Most) 
City Total Score 
1 Detroit, MI 100.00
2 Cleveland, OH 88.00
3 Birmingham, AL 87.54
4 Memphis, TN 78.90
5 Louisville, KY 78.03
6 Toledo, OH 76.98
7 Baton Rouge, LA 74.47
8 Buffalo, NY 72.58
9 Cincinnati, OH 71.37
10 Newark, NJ 70.91
11 Baltimore, MD 65.23
12 St. Louis, MO 65.17
13 Milwaukee, WI 64.19
14 New Orleans, LA 61.83
15 Philadelphia, PA 60.45
16 Indianapolis, IN 59.19
17 San Bernardino, CA 58.51
18 Tulsa, OK 57.56
19 Oklahoma City, OK 57.46
20 Wichita, KS 56.57
21 Winston-Salem, NC 56.47
22 San Antonio, TX 56.10
23 Greensboro, NC 55.88
24 Lexington-Fayette, KY 55.39
25 Jacksonville, FL 55.22
26 Hialeah, FL 54.83
27 Pittsburgh, PA 54.54
28 Norfolk, VA 54.53
29 Dallas, TX 54.09
30 Kansas City, MO 53.74
31 Fort Worth, TX 53.23
32 El Paso, TX 52.50
33 Houston, TX 52.06
34 Columbus, OH 51.91
35 Miami, FL 51.36
36 Tampa, FL 51.09
37 Nashville, TN 50.75
38 St. Petersburg, FL 50.08
39 Stockton, CA 48.74
40 Garland, TX 48.41
41 Durham, NC 47.10
42 Arlington, TX 47.05
43 Chicago, IL 46.95
44 Fresno, CA 46.72
45 North Las Vegas, NV 45.59
46 Omaha, NE 45.39
47 Orlando, FL 45.23
48 Las Vegas, NV 45.12
49 Tucson, AZ 42.38
50 Atlanta, GA 42.26
51 Chesapeake, VA 41.29
52 Mesa, AZ 40.48
53 Glendale, AZ 38.89
54 Irving, TX 38.62
55 Bakersfield, CA 38.28
56 New York, NY 38.07
57 Sacramento, CA 37.41
58 Charlotte, NC 37.29
59 Henderson, NV 36.16
60 Phoenix, AZ 36.16
61 Jersey City, NJ 36.07
62 St. Paul, MN 34.15
63 Virginia Beach, VA 32.40
64 Raleigh, NC 32.25
65 Oakland, CA 31.94
66 Santa Ana, CA 31.72
67 Riverside, CA 30.85
68 Albuquerque, NM 30.81
69 Honolulu, HI 30.49
70 Boston, MA 29.28
71 Washington, DC 29.01
72 Scottsdale, AZ 28.99
73 Los Angeles, CA 27.80
74 Portland, OR 26.38
75 Boise, ID 26.10
76 Long Beach, CA 25.96
77 Aurora, CO 25.46
78 Plano, TX 23.94
79 Chula Vista, CA 23.84
80 Anaheim, CA 23.46
81 Minneapolis, MN 22.93
82 Madison, WI 21.31
83 Colorado Springs, CO 20.04
84 Austin, TX 19.71
85 Chandler, AZ 19.02
86 San Diego, CA 18.40
87 Denver, CO 16.17
88 Gilbert, AZ 14.36
89 Seattle, WA 12.91
90 San Jose, CA 11.60
91 San Francisco, CA 8.56
92 Fremont, CA 0.74
93 Irvine, CA 0.00

Go to the next page to see the methodology used to determine the order of cities that will need the most COVID-10 vaccines in the first wave of nationwide distribution.

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