Men live to about 76 to 78 years on average, depending on where they live. Across developed countries, the average is 77.6 years. In the United States specifically, male life expectancy reached 76.5 years in 2024, up from 75.8 the year before. Women consistently outlive men by 5 to 7 years in virtually every country on Earth.
Male Life Expectancy by Region
The numbers vary significantly depending on geography. Across OECD countries (a group of 38 mostly high-income nations), men lived to an average of 77.6 years as of 2021, while women averaged 83.0. The United States falls slightly below that average, with American men reaching 76.5 years as of the most recent CDC data from 2024. That figure rebounded after pandemic-era losses, when life expectancy across developed nations dropped by 0.7 years between 2019 and 2021.
Before COVID-19, life expectancy had been climbing steadily. Between 2010 and 2019, OECD countries gained an average of 1.7 years. But even before the pandemic, those gains were slowing in several wealthy nations, suggesting that simply having access to modern healthcare doesn’t guarantee continued improvement.
Why Men Die Younger Than Women
The 5-to-7-year gap between male and female life expectancy is one of the most consistent patterns in global health. It comes down to a combination of biology and behavior, with behavior playing the larger role than most people realize.
On the biological side, men face significantly higher cardiovascular risk. Heart disease risk is about 80% higher for men than for women, partly driven by differences in hormones and body composition. Testosterone influences how and where the body stores fat, and those patterns affect long-term health outcomes.
But biology only tells part of the story. Men are more likely to smoke, drink heavily, and take physical risks. They’re less likely to wear sunscreen (two out of every three melanoma deaths occur in men). They delay medical care, skip checkups, and push through symptoms that warrant attention. These aren’t random individual choices. Research in health psychology has identified roughly 30 distinct behaviors common among men that increase the risk of injury, disease, or death.
The Preventive Care Gap
One of the starkest differences between men and women is how often they see a doctor when nothing feels wrong. CDC data shows that women make preventive care visits at nearly 70% higher rates than men: 76.6 visits per 100 women compared to 45.4 per 100 men. The gap is most dramatic among younger adults. Women aged 18 to 44 visit a doctor for preventive care at a rate of 87.1 per 100, while men in the same age group come in at just 18.5 per 100.
This matters because many of the conditions that kill men, including heart disease, certain cancers, and diabetes, are far more treatable when caught early. By the time symptoms become impossible to ignore, the window for easier intervention has often closed. The pattern of avoiding healthcare also means men are less likely to receive guidance on diet, blood pressure, cholesterol, and other modifiable risk factors during the years when lifestyle changes have the greatest impact.
How Masculinity Norms Affect Health
Research has traced many of these patterns back to cultural expectations around masculinity. Men who strongly identify with norms like self-reliance, emotional control, competitiveness, and risk-taking tend to engage in more health-damaging behaviors and fewer protective ones. That includes higher rates of substance use, greater reluctance to seek medical help, and less investment in preventive self-care like maintaining a healthy diet or using healthcare resources properly.
This isn’t about blaming individual men. It’s a population-level pattern. Men who endorse fewer of these rigid norms tend to eat better, see doctors more regularly, and practice more preventive self-care. The effect is measurable: health-protective behaviors correlate with lower endorsement of risk-taking, competitiveness, and the pressure to appear invulnerable.
Healthy Years After 65
Raw life expectancy doesn’t capture quality of life. A useful companion measure is “healthy life years,” which estimates how many years a person can expect to live without significant disability or chronic disease. At age 65, men can expect about 9.6 healthy years on average across OECD countries, compared to 10 for women. That gap is notably smaller than the gap in total life expectancy, which means men who reach 65 spend a similar proportion of their remaining years in good health.
This is worth knowing because it reframes what longevity looks like in practice. Living longer doesn’t automatically mean more years of decline. For men who stay active and manage chronic conditions, the years after 65 can be largely healthy ones.
Where Life Expectancy Is Headed
The outlook is positive. The Global Burden of Disease Study, published in The Lancet, projects that global male life expectancy will increase by 4.9 years between 2022 and 2050. That’s actually a slightly larger projected gain than for women (4.2 years), meaning the gender gap may slowly narrow over the coming decades. The gains are expected to come from continued improvements in treating infectious disease, reducing child mortality, and managing chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
For men alive today, the practical takeaway is straightforward. The biggest threats to male longevity are largely preventable: cardiovascular disease, smoking-related illness, and cancers caught too late. Closing the gap between how long men live and how long they could live comes down to habits that are unglamorous but effective. Routine checkups, earlier engagement with healthcare, and fewer avoidable risks consistently show up as the levers that matter most.