shorter life expectancy in the countryside than in the city

Life in the countryside seems peaceful and serene, but it is not necessarily longer. Life expectancy there is shorter than in the city, according to a study by the association of rural mayors of France. On average, men inhabitant in rural areas live 78 years, against 84 years for women. In urban areas, they gain almost two years and one year respectively.

The gap is still widening

According to a doctor from Morbihan, this gap is explained by the difficulties of access to care. “When there is a lack of doctors, people wait and hang around with pathologies”, he observes. For the mayor of Kerfourn (Morbihan), the problem is also sociological: “There must be a few civil servants, but there are certainly more workers who have more physical jobs in the rural communes.” The North and East departments are affected by higher mortality. Far from clichés, the Paris region is, on the contrary, a region where people live old. The gap between town and country has continued to widen.