Women In Rural Areas

In 1996, 52 million people, or 20 percent of the U.S. population, lived in a nonmetropolitan or rural area. The rural population differs in important ways from more urbanized populations. Demographically, rural populations are older than metropolitan populations, with a greater proportion of the population made up of persons aged 65 years and older. These and other factors, including a more limited supply of health care providers and increased distances from health care resources, contribute to special health concerns among rural populations.

The highest percentages of both males and females living in rural areas were represented by children aged 14 years and younger and adults aged 45-64. Males in rural areas outnumbered females through age 44, but there were more women than men over age 44, especially among persons aged 65 and older. Furthermore, the population of older women is expected to grow substantially in the coming years; between 1996 and 2020, the number of women aged 65 and older is projected to increase by 55 percent in nonmetropolitan areas.

On a variety of measures, rural populations are in poorer health, or at higher risk for poor health due to health behaviors, than more urbanized populations. Adults living in rural areas are more likely to smoke than those living in urban areas. In 1997-98, 27 percent of women living in nonmetropolitan areas smoked as compared to 20 percent of women in metropolitan areas.(1) In addition, people in rural areas are more likely to be limited in their activities by a chronic health condition than people in urban areas, with women in rural areas more likely than their male counterparts to have limited activity levels due to chronic conditions.

1 - Eberhardt, MS, Ingram, DD, Makuc, DM et al. Urban and Rural Health Chartbook. Health, United States, 2001. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2001.

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