In the United States, roughly 3 out of 4 people will live to age 75. The exact figure differs by sex: about 73% of men and 84% of women born today can expect to reach their 75th birthday, based on current mortality rates from the Social Security Administration’s actuarial life tables.
Those numbers are far higher than most people assume, and they’ve climbed dramatically over the past century. But they also mask real differences depending on where you live, your background, and a handful of health factors that matter more than genetics.
Why Women Outlive Men to 75
The roughly 11-percentage-point gap between men and women is one of the most consistent patterns in longevity data. Women have lower rates of heart disease through middle age, partly because estrogen offers some cardiovascular protection before menopause. Men are also more likely to die from accidents and suicide, two of the top ten causes of death in the U.S. that disproportionately affect younger and middle-aged males. Accidental deaths alone account for nearly 200,000 deaths per year, and suicide claims close to 49,000, with men representing the majority in both categories.
Heart disease and cancer are the two biggest killers overall, responsible for roughly 683,000 and 620,000 deaths per year respectively. Both tend to strike before age 75 more often in men. The combination of higher biological risk and higher behavioral risk explains why a man’s odds of reaching 75 sit about 11 points below a woman’s.
How These Numbers Have Changed
A century ago, reaching 75 was genuinely rare. In 1900, average life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was just 47 years. That number was dragged down by high infant and childhood mortality, but even adults who survived to middle age faced threats from pneumonia, tuberculosis, and infections that are now treatable. By the mid-20th century, antibiotics, vaccines, and basic sanitation had pushed life expectancy past 65.
The second wave of improvement came from cardiovascular medicine. Starting in the 1960s, better management of blood pressure, the introduction of cholesterol-lowering drugs, declining smoking rates, and advances in emergency cardiac care cut heart disease deaths dramatically. Stroke deaths dropped by a similar margin. These changes are the single biggest reason the percentage of Americans reaching 75 climbed from roughly 50% in the 1950s to the mid-to-high 70s today.
Racial and Socioeconomic Gaps
National averages obscure significant disparities. Black Americans have historically had lower survival rates to age 75 than white Americans, a gap driven by differences in access to healthcare, rates of chronic disease, exposure to environmental hazards, and socioeconomic stress. The gap has narrowed over the past two decades but remains meaningful. Hispanic Americans, by contrast, tend to have survival rates comparable to or slightly above white Americans, a pattern researchers call the “Hispanic paradox” because it persists even at lower average income levels.
Geography matters too. Residents of states with higher poverty rates, fewer healthcare facilities, and higher obesity rates consistently show lower survival to 75. The difference between the best- and worst-performing U.S. states in life expectancy can be as large as 7 years.
What Happens After You Reach 75
If you do make it to 75, the outlook is better than you might expect. According to the Social Security Administration’s 2022 data, a 75-year-old man can expect to live an additional 10.9 years on average, reaching about 86. A 75-year-old woman can expect about 12.7 more years, reaching nearly 88. These figures reflect the “survivor effect”: people who’ve already avoided the diseases and accidents that kill before 75 tend to be healthier than the general population, so their remaining life expectancy is relatively generous.
The quality of those years depends heavily on a few factors. Maintaining mobility, managing blood pressure, staying socially connected, and avoiding falls are the biggest determinants of whether the years after 75 are independent and active or marked by disability. Falls alone are the leading cause of injury death in adults over 65.
What Influences Your Own Odds
Genetics account for roughly 20 to 30% of the variation in human lifespan. The rest comes down to modifiable factors. The ones with the strongest evidence for extending life past 75 are straightforward: not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, staying physically active, and managing blood pressure and blood sugar if they’re elevated.
Smoking is the single largest controllable risk factor. A lifelong smoker’s probability of reaching 75 is roughly half that of a nonsmoker. Quitting at any age improves the odds, though quitting before 40 recovers nearly all of the lost life expectancy.
Physical activity has an outsized effect as well. Adults who meet the standard recommendation of 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise have mortality rates roughly 30% lower than sedentary adults. Even modest activity, like regular walking, shifts the curve meaningfully. The protective effect holds well into old age, making exercise one of the few interventions that both extends life and preserves independence in the years it adds.