Conclusions: The difference in sepsis mortality between urban and rural areas decreased over time.Males, the elderly, and neonates were found to be high-risk subpopulations. Gram (+) bacteria were predominant among neonates with sepsis, but the proportion of patients with Gram (+) or Gram (–) bacteria was similar among adults with sepsis.2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license