Rural economies in the United States are facing a downward spiral with job losses and failure to acquire skills required in this age of automation. A multitude of factors have prevented rural communities to keep up with the mainstream American economy leading to outmigration and rising debt levels

This paper considers the rural mortality transition over 1900 to 1930. While previous work has extensively documented urban mortality transition over this period (Armstrong et al., 1999; Haines, 2001; Cutler and Miller, 2005), declines in U.S. rural mortality have been understudied. This article fills...