U.S. counties without local newspapers 2020

News deserts are becoming an issue in communities all across the United States, with 198 counties lacking a local newspaper in 2020, up from 171 in 2018. The source noted that California lost the most dailies, but it was the South (the region with some of the country's poorest states) which had the most news deserts. In 2020, a total of 108 counties did not have a local newspaper, compared to just four in the Mid-Atlantic region and three in New England.

Number of counties without a local newspaper in the United States in 2018 and 2020, by region

Characteristic	2018	2020
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Release date

June 2020

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Region

United States

Survey time period

2018 and 2020

Supplementary notes

Data prior to 2020 comes from previous reports.
States were grouped into regions thus:
Pacific: AK, CA, HI, OR, WA
Mountain: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY
Midwest: IL, IN, MI, OH, WI, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD
South: DE, DC, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV, AL, KY, MS, TN, AR, LA, OK, TX
Mid-Atlantic: NJ, NY, PA
New England: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT

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