Women outlive men in virtually every country in the world.
In 2024, U.S. life expectancy at birth was 76.5 years for males and 81.4 years for females — a gap of 4.9 years, which actually narrowed by 0.4 years compared to 2023. 
The mortality gap between men and women has been widening over time.
Global data from 1970 to 2021 shows the ratio of male to female mortality rates has generally increased, driven by mortality rates among females decreasing at a faster rate than among males.
Males have a 63% higher risk of all-cause mortality compared to females in the United States, even after accounting for demographic characteristics, behavioral factors, and chronic conditions.
At age 65, the gap is smaller: women can expect to live another 20.8 years, men another 18.4 years — a difference of 2.4 years. 
In 1920, the female advantage was only about 2 years.
By the 1970s it had widened to over 7 years, largely due to men’s widespread adoption of cigarette smoking.
It has since narrowed as smoking patterns converged. 
Female life expectancy now exceeds male life expectancy in every country in the world.
The gap varies widely: it is especially large in Eastern Europe, reaching over 10 years in some countries like Kazakhstan, while being much smaller elsewhere. 
Females have two X chromosomes, giving their cells the ability to draw on the better copy from either parent.
Two X chromosomes provides a genetic stability advantage males lack.
Higher estrogen levels in women also appear to have a protective effect on the heart and circulatory system. 
Age-specific mortality:
Between ages 15 and 40, men die at rates two to three times higher than women, but relatively few total deaths occur at these ages.
The bigger driver is elevated male mortality after age 60, where deaths are far more common. 
In 2021, the mortality rate for males aged 15-39 years was 65.9% higher than for females globally.
This widening gap has been observed for nearly all age groups aged 40 years and older.
Men are three times as likely as women to die from injuries — including unintentional accidents, suicide, and homicide — and progress against these causes has been much slower than against other causes of death over the past 50 years. 
Testosterone contributes to greater physical risk-taking and aggression in males, contributing to higher death rates from accidents and homicide. 
Women living longer but spending more of those years with disability or illness is known as the male-female health-survival paradox — women live longer, yet often experience higher rates of disability, chronic conditions, and morbidity at older ages. 
Men tend to die sooner but live relatively healthier lives in their final years.
Cause-specific mortality differences reveal important patterns.
The largest sex difference occurs in heart disease mortality, with males having a 96% higher risk than females.
Males also show increased risks for malignant neoplasms, cerebrovascular diseases, and diabetes.
The leading causes of death differ by sex: for males, heart disease (23%), cancer (20%), and unintentional injuries (9%) predominate, while for females, heart disease (21%), cancer (20%), and stroke (6%) are most common.
Despite convergence in health behaviors over recent decades—smoking rates declined from 51% to 13% in men and 34% to 9% in women between 1965 and 2023, and alcohol use patterns have narrowed—the mortality gap persists.
It is suggested that intrinsic biological factors play a substantial role in the mortality gap between men and women including sex hormones, chromosomal differences (particularly X-linked genes that escape inactivation), immune response variations, and differential biological aging as measured by telomere length and age-related biomarkers.
The mortality gap shows racial and ethnic variation.
Among White individuals, males are 2.11 times more likely to die from heart disease compared to females, while among Black individuals the ratio is 1.6, and among Hispanic individuals there is no significant sex difference.
Income also modifies the gap, with the largest sex differences in cerebrovascular mortality occurring in the lowest income quartiles.
Deaths of despair (suicide, alcohol, and drugs) contribute to the widening gap in mortality between men and women with drug-related mortality driving most of the growth across racial and ethnic groups, particularly among those without college degrees.
An important paradox: while women live longer, they experience a larger healthspan-lifespan gap, living more years with disease burden compared to men, particularly from noncommunicable diseases affecting musculoskeletal, genitourinary, and neurological systems.