Lack of correlation between COVID-19 death rates and high school completion percentages

Introduction: COVID-19 mortality rates vary widely and, while there are numerous theories as to the causes of these disparities, definitive answers remain elusive. Objectives: The objective of this project is to determine whether there is a relationship between COVID-19 mortality rates and levels of educational attainment. The datasets include COVID-19 mortality information from 2020 and 2021 at the state level and include 12-year schooling information (High School). Methods: This project makes use of Tableau Public (2021.4) to create a scatter plot representation of levels of educational attainment by state and COVID-19 mortality rates by state. A descriptive analysis determines whether there is a relationship between the two elements. Results: There is no relationship, positive or negative, between the two variables (COVID-19 death rates and High School completion percentages, both at the state level). Conclusions: There is no correlation between the percentage of High School drop outs and COVID-19 mortality rates at the state level according to the datasets analyzed. Nonetheless, this warrants further exploration, as the present study was limited in its scope.