Campus Infection by Region

This graph displays the infection rate by region among college for Fall 2020. I was surprised to see that, despite the negative news, southern colleges actually out-performed northern colleges in terms of suppressing outbreaks of Covid-19.

I suspect there are a few factors that may have influenced the statistics: (a) some  colleges may not have reported their data.  Certain colleges do not require testing. Others require testing once or even twice per week. As colleges test more, so too do they find more cases. (b) Perhaps weather had a large influence of the covid-positivity rate. For example, in the northeast, it is hard to bare the cold, especially in the winter months; so students spend more time high-risk environments while indoors. As opposed to the north, college students in the south can spend much more time outside, where transmission is low. (c) Concerning politics, it may be the case that all college students, regardless of their region, tend to believe in science and in mask wearing.

Data Analyst: Jordan Eisenman