Rural England
Premature death
Key points
- Somewhat fewer people in rural districts die prematurely than in urban districts. For men, the rural rate is around 20% lower than the urban rate whilst, for women, the difference is around 15%.
- The rate of premature death for women is much less than that for men.
- As in urban districts, the rate of premature death in rural districts has fallen over the last decade.
- See the UK indicator on premature death.
Graph 1: By gender
View Graph as PDF (resizeable) Right click to save large version of Graph as PNG
Graph 1: By gender
View Graph as PDF (resizeable) Right click to save large version of Graph as PNG
Rural/urban ratios (urban = 10)
On most poverty and social exclusion indicators, rural areas have 'better scores' than urban areas. The purpose of the table below is to differentiate between those subjects where rural areas are 'a bit better' and those where rural areas are 'a lot better'. It does so by presenting the rural statistics for the indicator as a proportion of the urban statistics. So, for example, a rural 'score' of 6 in the table below means that the rural statistic is around 60% of its urban equivalent.
| Type of district | 2008 | 1998 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | |
| 'Very rural' districts | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| 'Mostly rural' districts | 8 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 8 |
| 'Part rural' districts | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 8 |
Definitions and data sources
The graphs
For each type of local authority district, the first graph shows the number of deaths of people aged under 65 per 100,000 population aged under 65 in the latest year, with the data shown separately for males and females. The data has been standardised to a constant European age structure.
For each type of local authority district, the second graph shows how the number of deaths (males and females combined) in the latest year compares with the number for a decade earlier. Again, the data has been standardised to a constant European age structure.
Level of the data
Lower tier local authorities (districts), as classified by the DEFRA 2009 classification system. Both the DEFRA classification rules and their results by local authority can be found on the page on rural/urban classification systems.
Source
ONS Mortality Statistics Division (the data is not publicly available).
The numbers
| Type of district | 2008 | 1998 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | |
| 'Very rural' districts | 179 | 121 | 150 | 220 | 145 | 183 |
| 'Mostly rural' districts | 187 | 125 | 156 | 235 | 151 | 193 |
| 'Part rural' districts | 196 | 128 | 162 | 233 | 148 | 190 |
| Urban districts | 242 | 147 | 195 | 291 | 172 | 232 |