Demographic benchmarks for equitable coverage of the COVID-19 vaccination program among priority populations

We report the demographic distribution of non-institutionalized populations in the US who are prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination by ethnicity, age and sex and region. The composition of non-institutionalized priority populations was estimated using a nationally representative sample of 25,417 adults interviewed in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) in 2018. A relatively large fraction of individuals prioritized for the earliest distribution of the vaccine are women, non-Hispanic Black, and young to middle aged adults. Overall, the study provides a platform to track equity in vaccine coverage and to better tailor health communication strategies.