Life expectancy in the U. S. also varies widely by region, with rural Americans more likely than their urban counterparts to die prematurely. Limited access to healthcare may help explain the poorer health of rural residents. About 25% of the U. S. population lives in rural areas, served by only 10% of the country's physicians. Lack of emergency medical response teams and other resources also contributes to the rural population's lower life expectancy.

Where you live also helps determine income mobility in the U. S., with the economic geography of cities playing a central role in whether the poor can rise from poverty. "Where you grow up matters," according to Nathaniel Hendren, a Harvard economist. "There is tremendous variation across the U. S. in the extent to which kids can rise out of poverty." In the southeast and midwest, in cities like Atlanta and Indianapolis, economic mobility remains extremely low. Concentrated poverty and weak public transit systems mean low-income communities have difficulty accessing decent-paying jobs. Economic mobility increases in places where poor families are more fully integrated into mixed-income neighborhoods; where two-parent households are more prevalent; where there are better elementary and high schools; and where there is more civic engagement in religious and community groups. Geography matters far less for children of well-off families than for those of middle-class or poor families.  According to a 2013 study, affluent children will more likely remain affluent as adults, with one of every three thirty-year-olds who grew up in the top one percent of the income distribution making at least $100,000 in family income. Among adults who grew up in the bottom half of the income distribution, however, only one out of twenty-five had family income of at least $100,000 by age thirty.