Research Alert: August 22, 2017

Regional Differences in Rural and Urban Mortality Trends

Previous research has established both that there is a gap in nationwide urban-rural mortality and that this gap is increasing over time. Existing and ongoing work has found that the urban-rural mortality gap may vary regionally. This brief builds upon previous research and explores the differences in mortality trends between urban and rural locations by census division from 1999 to 2015. Using data from CDC WONDER's Compressed Mortality File, we calculated urban and rural all-cause mortality rates in each of the nine census divisions. Confirming previous research, we found that rural mortality is higher than urban mortality in every year. Further, the difference between urban and rural mortality is increasing nationwide: The disparity after 2007 is larger than the disparity before 2007 in all nine census divisions. The urban-rural disparity also varies regionally; for example, rural mortality rates, and differences between the urban and rural mortality rates, are the highest in the Southeastern United States. The regional variation in the rural and urban mortality gap over time suggests that more research must be done to explain underlying causes of these disparities and to support the development of policies that can mitigate them.

Additional Resources of Interest:

• More information about the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
• More information from the Rural Health Information Hub's topic guide: Rural Health Policy