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Rural America is facing an existential crisis. As cities continue to grow and prosper, small towns are shrinking. That fundamental divide played itself out in the recent presidential election.
[...] The trend is clear: Rural America is literally fading away. It shouldn't come as a surprise, therefore, that the opioid overdose epidemic has hit rural states, like Kentucky and West Virginia, especially hard. And the latest research from the CDC also shouldn't come as a surprise: Suicides in rural America (labeled as non-core) have increased over 40% in 16 years.
From 1999 to 2015, suicide rates increased everywhere in America. On average, across the U.S., suicides increased from 12.2 per 100,000 to 15.7 per 100,0001, an increase of just under 30%. However, in rural America, the suicide rate surged over 40%2, from just over 15 per 100,000 to roughly 22 per 100,000. Similarly, the suicide rate in micropolitan areas (defined as having a population between 10,000-49,999) went from 14 per 100,000 to 19 per 100,000, an increase of around 35%.
On the flip side, major cities saw much smaller increases in suicide rates, on the order of 10%. The graph depicts a clear pattern: Suicide rates are highest in the most rural parts of the country, and they slowly decrease as urbanization increases. As of 2015, the suicide rate in rural areas (22 per 100,000) is about 40% higher than in the nation as a whole (15.7 per 100,000) and 83% higher than in large cities (12 per 100,000).
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:28PM
What jobs exist doesn't matter. You still need to get hired. Way too many companies disqualify people for the slightest reasons. Once you end up in that downward spiral... Applying to jobs is a full time job leaving you with no time or money to spend on new skills to increase your employability. The longer you're unemployed, the worse that gets as money gets tighter and employees don't want to hire someone out of work for long periods of time. It's extremely difficult to get out of that downward spiral. I was in it, I managed to use my unemployment benefits to get back into school and now instead of living on the street I have a Masters degree and am about to buy my first house. I'll employ many others in fixing it up to livable conditions. A bottom social security net is very helpful. I would had been an excellent criminal without it. Instead, now I'm an excellent engineer and in 1-2 years will be starting my own business.