Thank you for your question!

We originally thought that living in rural areas would likely increase your lifespan due to less pollution and health hazards, such as murders, muggings and so on.

According to Healthline.com, however, that isn’t completely right.

People who live in rural areas are more likely to smoke, use alcohol or other substances, be physically inactive or overweight and have poor access to healthy foods. They are also more likely to not wear seat belts in cars.

Also, childhood obesity is a problem in rural areas, with 25 percent of children overweight in 2008, compared with 19 percent of urban children. A 2012 study by the Maine Rural Health Research Center concluded that alcohol use and binge drinking were more common among 12- to 13-year-olds in rural areas, compared with youth of the same ages in urban areas.

Finally Americans living in rural areas face a higher risk of dying from the five leading causes of death in the United States which are heart disease, cancer, lower respiratory disease, stroke, and unintentional injuries compared with their urban counterparts.

None of these hazards are unique to the country, but they do happen more frequently in rural settings. So all in all, living in a rural area is statistically more hazardous to your health than living in a city.