The Nature of the Rural-Urban Mortality Gap

Kelsey L. Thomas, Elizabeth A. Dobis and David A. McGranahan

No 341639, Economic Information Bulletin from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: The 2019 age-adjusted natural-cause mortality (NCM) rate for the prime working-age population (aged 25–54) was 43 percent higher in rural (nonmetropolitan) areas than in urban (metropolitan) areas. This is a shift from 25 years ago when NCM rates in urban and rural areas were similar for this age group. As a first step to understanding the increasing gap between rural and urban NCM rates, this report examines natural (disease-related) deaths for prime working-age adults in rural and urban areas between 1999 and 2019 using data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiology Research (WONDER). Prime working age NCM rates are examined for the population as a whole, as well as by sex, race and ethnicity, region, and State. Overall, both an increase in the rural, prime working-age NCM rates and a decrease in the corresponding urban rates are contributing to the growing mortality gap.

Keywords: Health Economics and Policy; Labor and Human Capital; Risk and Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37
Date: 2024-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hea and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uersib:341639

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.341639

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