Both Chester and Delaware counties have among the lowest IRS audit rates in the nation, according to a recently published study by Kim Bloomquist in Tax Notes, write Paul Kiel and Hannah Fresques for ProPublica.

The map created by Bloomquist, a senior economist with the IRS’s research division for 20 years, shows wide variations of audit rates from place to place.

It also shows certain groups of Americans are disproportionally affected by the IRS’s policies, as the five counties with the highest audit rates are all rural counties in the Deep South with predominantly African-American populations.

However, one of the reasons for the disparity is that a lot of taxpayers in counties with higher numbers of poor taxpayers receive the earned income tax credit, which helps raise low-income workers out of poverty.

In Chester County, an estimated 7.4 per 1,000 filings were audited, just below the national rate of 7.7 per 1,000.

Delaware County has a slightly higher average than its neighbor, but is still under the national average, with 7.5 per 1,000 filings audited.

The most heavily audited county nationwide is Humphreys County, Miss., with an estimated 11.9 per 1,000 filings audited.

Read more about average IRS audit rates at ProPublica here.

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