People often think of cities as being far more dangerous than small towns, but the reason for this is likely just that there are more people and so you’re going to see higher total numbers of criminal statistics. If you actually look into fatality rates and how dangerous these areas are for those who live there, you’ll find that people pass away at a much greater rate in rural areas. From this perspective, it is clearly more dangerous to live in a rural area than an urban city.
But why is this? Let’s look at two of the potential reasons:
Health complications
First of all, heart attacks and cancer take more lives in rural areas than in cities. Part of the reason for this could simply be the distance between a person and the nearest medical center. For example, someone who has a heart attack and needs to be transported 45 minutes to a hospital has far lower odds of surviving than someone who lives down the street from the hospital. There are also potential issues with doctors misdiagnosing heart attacks, something that happens more often with women than men.
Car accidents
Accidents of all kinds also take far more lives in rural areas. For car accidents, this is in part because the fatal accident rates are much higher – and a lot of this has to do with speed limits. Crashes do not happen as often in rural areas because there is less traffic, but the crashes that do happen tend to be far more severe and more likely to lead to fatalities.
If you have suffered injuries in an accident or if you have lost a loved one, be sure you know about all the legal options at your disposal.
