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USDA researchers found rural Americans from the ages of 25 to 54 die from natural causes, like chronic diseases and cancer, at wildly higher rates than the same age group living in urban areas.
The disparity in health between rural and urban Americans has grown in recent decades, according to a recent federal report.
In 1999, the natural cause mortality rate for people ages 25 to 54 in rural areas was only 6 percent higher than for city residents of the same age. By 2019, the gap had widened to 43 percent.
People in their prime working years living in rural America are 43% more likely to die of natural causes, like diseases, than their urban counterparts, a disparity that grew rapidly in recent decades, according to a new federal report.
In Matthew Roach's two years as vital statistics manager for the Arizona Department of Health Services, and 10 years previously in its epidemiology program, he has witnessed a trend in mortality rates that has rural health experts worried.