title: Convergence in rural-urban patterns of nuptiality and mortality: a life table update.
abstract: "Based on 1979-1981 and 1989-1991 [U.S.] vital registration and 1980 and 1990 census data, we construct increment-decrement life tables for rural and urban males and females. The analysis is centered on 1980 and 1990 and describes urban-rural differences in patterns of mortality and nuptiality by age and sex. Our research updates an earlier study that described urban-rural mortality and marital transition patterns for Tennessee, 1970. The 1980 and 1990 findings parallel the 1970 results.  Rural women and men have shorter life expectancies; higher infant mortality rates; younger median ages of entry into first marriage, divorce, and widowhood; a greater proportion of their cohorts ever marrying; lower probabilities of divorce; and higher probabilities of widowhood than urban women and men. However, there was a decline in urban-rural differences from 1970-1990. These changes suggest that urbanization, technological advances in communication and transportation, and the diffusion of urban lifestyles and values may have blurred the urban-rural distinction."
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Hastings
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000569:Americas; D003710:Demography; D019049:Developed Countries; D004467:Economics; D005843:Geography; D015993:Life Tables; D008393:Marriage; D009026:Mortality; D009656:North America; D011153:Population; D011154:Population Characteristics; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012106:Research; D012424:Rural Population; D012737:Sex Factors; D013672:Technology; D014481:United States; D014505:Urban Population; D014507:Urbanization
keywords: Age Factors; Americas; Comparative Studies; Demographic Analysis; Demographic Factors; Developed Countries; Differential Mortality; Economic Development; Economic Factors; Geographic Factors; Life Table Method; Life Tables; Mortality; North America; Northern America; Nuptiality; Population; Population Characteristics; Population Dynamics; Research Methodology; Rural Population; Sex Factors; Spatial Distribution; Studies; Technology; United States; Urban Population; Urban Spatial Distribution; Urbanization