New study suggests rural-urban mortality gap comes down to stress, rural infrastructure

Back in the late 1990s, a distressing trend took hold in rural America.

At that time, rural and urban mortality rates started to diverge, with rural populations experiencing 9% higher mortality among working-age adults.

Unfortunately, the divide has only grown over time.

As of 2019, working-age adults in rural areas were 43% more likely to die from natural causes than their urban counterparts, but researchers have struggled to explain this gap. ...