Gender Life Expectancy Gap Widens To Six Years Longer For Women

As of 2021, women’s life expectancy in the U.S. was 5.8 years longer than for men, up by 20% from a gap of 4.8 years in 2010. Average life expectancy in 2021 was 76.1 years. From 2019 to 2021, COVID-19 became the leading contributor to the widening gender life expectancy gap (-0.33years), followed by unintentional injuries (-0.27 years).

The largest contributors to worsening life expectancy for men compared to women were unintentional injuries (-0.23 years), diabetes (-0.05 years), suicide (-0.04 years), homicide (-0.03 years), and . . .