Abstract Purpose. The study investigates how individual and structural factors affect children's mental illness in rural municipalities, and how schooling acts as a protective factor against mental illness. The report is based on reports from Barnombudsmannen (2018) and Bris (2018), which says that increased mental illness increases for children and schools have an unequal education where the children in rural municipalities have poorer school results than the national average. The theoretical reference frame of the study is Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory. Method. One quantitative method is the basis for the study, which is based on surveys where respondents are children in rural municipalities. The data is collected by LoRDIA research projects and a stratification of the material is made to reach the appropriate population. Selected factors are hyperactivity, behavioural problems, relationships to peers, emotional symptoms, experiences of trauma and prosocial behaviour, school conditions, well-being in the residential area, the child's experience of family finances. Results. The study shows significant relationship between all of the above-mentioned factors and mental health. The mental illness of children can be understood as 43% of the studies examined factors. The results of the study can be seen to help increase understanding of the relationship between mental illness and risk and protection-factors for children living in rural municipalities. Conclusion. The results show that mental illness in the child is not only found as the child's individual characteristics but is linked to living conditions and the environment's ability to provide a safe home environment, good school and prosocial conditions. The significance of school and social authorities offering individualized efforts to prevent the increasing mental illness of children in rural municipalities is apparent from the results of the study. Keywords. Children, mental illness, rural, school, individual and structural factors, segregation