In the United States, women are expected to outlive men by 5.3 years. This longevity gap, which was two years in 1900, grew to nearly eight around 1980 before dropping to its current level.
What are the average lifespans for men and women born in the US?
In 2023, the life expectancy for men born in the United States was 75.8. For women, it was 81.1.
Lifespans had been rising across the board in the 20th century — in 1900, the average life expectancy was 46.3 for men and 48.3 for women. That rose throughout the century, apart from a 12-year drop in 1918 during the Spanish Flu pandemic, peaking for men in 2014 (76.3 years) and for women in 2019 (81.4).
When COVID-19 became a leading cause of death in 2020, men lost an average of 2.8 years and women 2.1. The averages have mostly bounced back; men have since recovered 2.3 years and women have recovered 1.8 years.
Interestingly, the longevity gap shrinks among older men and women — a 65-year old man in 2023 was expected to live another 18.2 years, until the age of 83.2, and a woman of the same age could expect another 20.7 years, until 85.7.
Why this smaller gap? More men die before age 65, dragging men’s life expectancy at birth down. Thirty-one percent of men who died in 2023 were below 65, compared to 19% of women. This may have some to do with how men and women die.
What are the leading causes of death for men and women?
Heart disease, cancer, and accidents were the three leading causes of death in the US in 2023. All three killed men at higher rates than women: 457 of every 100,000 men died from these, compared to 289 women.
Expanding this to look at the 15 overall leading causes of death, only one — Alzheimer’s disease — killed women at a higher rate after adjusting for age. Men were nearly four times as likely as women to die by suicide, and more than twice as likely to die from an accident or from Parkinson’s.
Wondering how you fit in? The Social Security Administration’s life expectancy calculator forecasts how much longer a person can expect to live based on birth year and gender.
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Read data analyses written by the USAFacts team.
Page sources and methodology
All of the data on the page was sourced directly from government agencies. The analysis and final review was performed by USAFacts.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Vital Statistics System
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Underlying Cause of Death, 1999-2020
