Research Alert: March 12, 2019

Dying Too Soon: County-level Disparities in Premature Death by Rurality, Race, and Ethnicity

In this brief, we find that counties with a majority of non-Hispanic Black and American Indian/Alaskan Native residents had significantly higher premature death rates (defined as years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 people) than counties with a majority of non-Hispanic White residents, regardless of rural-urban location. When comparing counties with similar racial and ethnic compositions, rural counties had higher rates of premature death than urban counties. Additionally, we found that the highest rates of premature death were observed in rural counties where a majority of residents were non-Hispanic Black or American Indian/Alaskan Native.

Additional Resources of Interest:

• More information about the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
• More information from the Rural Health Information Hub's topic guides: Healthcare Access, Rural Health Disparities, Tribal Health