Safer in Cities?

In an article in The Atlantic, “You're More Likely to Die a Violent Death in Rural America Than in a City,” author Emily Badger explains why the title may be true based on the recently published study, “Safety in Numbers: Are Major Cities the Safest Places in the United States?” published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

The study looked at every injury death in America between 1999 and 2006, excluding death by terrorism from the National Center for Health Statistics. That number totaled 1,295,919 deaths which were tagged with the county where the injury took place, with counties classified on a 10-step continuum from urban to rural. The main findings of the study says is urban areas are significantly safer than rural areas, when looking at all means of death due to injury with the top three causes of death being motor vehicle crashes, firearm use or accident, and poisoning.

Maps from "Safety in Numbers: Are Major Cities the Safest Places in the United States?" by S. Myers et al. in Annals of Emergency Medicine