U.S. COVID-19 Hospitalization Metrics by County, Weekly Historical Data

Weekly county-level COVID-19 hospitalization data from approximately 6,000 U.S. hospitals reported to the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network. Metrics include admissions, inpatient and ICU bed occupancy, and population-adjusted rates, aggregated from December 15, 2022, until reporting ended in May 2024. The dataset is archived and no longer updated after May 3, 2024.

Use Cases

• Modeling weekly COVID-19 hospital admission trends using total_adm_all_covid_confirmed_past_7days and total_adm_all_covid_confirmed_past_7days_per_100k.
• Analyzing healthcare capacity strain by correlating avg_percent_inpatient_beds_used_confirmed_covid with avg_percent_staff_icu_beds_covid.
• Tracking weekly changes in admissions and bed occupancy using admissions_covid_confirmed_week_over_week_percent_change and abs_chg_avg_percent_inpatient_beds_occupied_covid_confirmed.
• Mapping county-level hospitalization risk and capacity levels using fips_code, state, county, and the associated *_level columns.

Strengths

• Data sourced from a national surveillance system covering approximately 6,000 U.S. hospitals.
• Includes multiple calculated metrics like population-adjusted rates (per_100k) and week-over-week percent changes.
• Provides geospatial granularity with county-level (fips_code) and Health Service Area (health_sa_name) identifiers.

Limitations

• Data is archived and was last updated on 2025-02-23; it reflects a historical snapshot ending in May 2024.
• Row count and total data size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.
• The description notes that reporting errors might exist, and some hospital subtypes are excluded from calculations.

Provenance

Source

data.cdc.gov, via the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

Collection Method

Aggregated counts reported by hospitals to NHSN, with CDC review for errors and outlier removal.

Time Range

Historical data up to May 3, 2024. Reporting standardized from December 15, 2022.

Freshness

Archived; last updated 2025-02-23 23:05:32 but data collection ended May 3, 2024.

Geography

All counties or county-equivalents in the United States, including territories.