The mortality rate is higher among rural adults — and the gap with urban areas is growing

From IPR (link: https://www.iowapublicradio.org/harvest-public-media/2024-04-29/the-mortality-rate-is-higher-among-rural-adults-and-the-gap-with-urban-areas-is-growing)

The new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture finds rural working age adults are dying of natural causes at a faster rate than their urban counterparts — and that gap has widened dramatically over the past two decades.

Rural adults from ages 25-54 died of natural causes at a 6% higher rate than urban residents in 1999. Twenty years later, that number grew to 43%, according to the report.

Those mortality rates, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control, decreased over the two decade span for urban adults in the age group.

“The more rural the area, the greater the increase in prime working-age natural cause mortality rates (or smaller the decrease) over time,” according to the report.