Abstract. The reduction in the rural population of working age, due to high mortality rates, is one of the priority demographic, social and economic problems of the Russian Federation. The mortality rate of the working-age population is one of the key indicators of the state of national security of the country, and the task of achieving the target value of this indicator is an urgent task of state health policy in the medium term. The development of preventive programs aimed at reducing the mortality rate of the rural working-age population cannot be carried out without an analysis of the mortality of the studied population, which justifies the relevance of the study. The purpose of the study is to analyze the mortality of the rural population of working age in the Chelyabinsk region. Materials and methods. The sources of information were the official data of the Federal Statistics Service for the Russian Federation, statistical materials of the Territorial Body of the Federal State Statistics Service for the Chelyabinsk Region (Chelyabinskstat). Research methods: mathematical and statistical; analytical (quantitative, structural, comparative). Results and its discussion. The dynamics of the decline in the number of working-age population has been established in the region, which is due to high mortality rates of the working-age population. The rate of decline of the rural working-age population of the region exceeds that of the region as a whole. An analysis of the mortality structure of the working-age population of the Chelyabinsk region as a whole and the rural population of the region by causes of death for 2021 established a mismatch between the mortality structure of the studied populations. Despite the dynamics of the decline in the mortality rate of the working-age population of the region, the mortality rate of the working-age population in the region as a whole, as well as in the rural areas of the region in 2021, exceeded the indicative indicator of the federal project "Healthcare" by 1.6 and 2.0 times, respectively. Since 2019, a growth trend has been established in the mortality rate of the working-age population in the studied populations. Conclusions. The obtained data testify to the insufficient effectiveness of measures aimed at reducing the mortality of the working-age population at the regional level, justify the need to analyze the causes of inefficiency, and the need to develop new organizational technologies for managing the mortality of the able-bodied population living in rural areas. The results of the mortality analysis of the rural population of working age in the Chelyabinsk region can be used in the development of specialized preventive programs aimed at reducing the mortality of the rural population of working age in the strategic future, as well as in the development of measures aimed at improving the organization of medical care for this category of the population.