Adults aged 25–54 in rural areas had increase in mortality rates in recent decades

Rural areas have experienced an increase in both natural-cause and external-cause mortality rates among the prime working-age population—those aged 25 to 54. Researchers with USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) analyzed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention death data from two separate three-year periods, 1999–2001 and 2017–2019, for two types of death categories in both rural and urban areas. External causes include drug overdose, suicide, and alcohol-induced deaths, while deaths from natural causes include disease-related deaths like heart disease and cancer. Externally caused death rates increased for the prime working-age population in both rural and urban areas, although rural areas had a slightly greater increase (36 deaths per 100,000 residents, compared with 29). However, researchers found that only in rural areas did natural-cause mortality rates increase for the prime working-age population. Rural, natural-cause morality rates increased by 14 deaths per 100,000 residents, while urban rates decreased by 37. About 46 million people—almost 14 percent of the U.S. population—live in rural areas. This chart appears in the ERS report The Nature of the Rural-Urban Mortality Gap, published in March 2024.

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