The importance of political and religious affiliation in explaining county-level COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy

Abstract The authors use county-level data to test whether an array of socioeconomic, demographic, political and religious variables explain COVID-19 vaccination rates. Results presented here build upon previous investigations of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in different contexts and are largely consi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Declan R. Carroll, Stephen J. Conroy, Adriana Vamosiu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-04-01
Series:Health Economics Review
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13561-025-00605-y
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Summary:Abstract The authors use county-level data to test whether an array of socioeconomic, demographic, political and religious variables explain COVID-19 vaccination rates. Results presented here build upon previous investigations of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in different contexts and are largely consistent with those findings. Background controls such as county’s percent male (+), median age (+), percent White (-), median household income (+), percent self-employed (-), and the percent with a college or higher education (+) explain county-level vaccination rates for COVID-19. Political affiliation (Percent Republican (-)) remains the strongest predictor in terms of overall statistical significance. The county’s percent Catholic (+) and percent Evangelical (-) are also very strong predictors, though in opposite directions. This analysis includes state-level fixed effects and several robustness checks.
ISSN:2191-1991