“Fact Sheet No. 9, updated Fall 2007 – Rural Americans Continue to Account for Disproportionately High Share of U.S. Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan – is the Carsey Institute’s second annual Veteran’s Day release of this data, drawn from U.S. Department of Defense records. “As we observe Veteran’s Day this year, it is important for Americans to recognize that rural families are paying a disproportionately high price for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” says report author William P. O’Hare, a senior fellow at the Carsey Institute. Rural areas account for only 19 percent of the adult population, but have suffered 26 percent of the casualties. Of the 4,197 American military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, 1,102 are accounted for by soldiers from rural areas. That represents a death rate of 31 per million among rural men and women, compared to a death rate of 21 per million for urbanites – a significant increase since October 2006, when the death rate was 24 per million for rural residents and 15 per million for urbanites.”