Rural Health

A century ago, only around 13 per cent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. By 1950, this figure had increased to 29 per cent (UN 2005). In 2011, just under one-quarter of the inhabitants of the more developed regions lived in rural areas, compared to over half of those in less developed regions (UN 2011). Urban environments seem, intuitively at least,‘less healthy’ than rural environments due to higher levels of overcrowding, air pollution,and stress associated with being part of the ‘rat-race’. Yet, the available evidence suggests that urban dwellers are in fact healthier than their rurally based counterparts across a range of relevant indicators.