A global study, published today, challenges the belief that women live longer than men.
Dr Jesus-Adrian Alvarez of The University of Southern Denmark set out to measure sex differences in lifespan based on the probability of males outliving females.
To do so, they looked at national figures from the Human Mortality Database and the World Population Prospects, a UN document of population estimates.
In total, they covered 199 populations spanning all continents, with information gathered from 1751 to 2020.
By randomly pairing up one male and one female in each population, the researchers found that the probability of the male outliving the female – the ‘outsurvival’ statistic – varied between 25% and 50% across almost all populations during this time period.
In BMJ Open today, they write: "Although male life expectancy is generally lower than female life expectancy, and male death rates are usually higher at all ages, males have a substantial chance of outliving females.
"These findings challenge the general impression that ‘men do not live as long as women’ and reveal a more nuanced inequality in lifespans between females and males."
The team recommends that efforts to reduce lifespan inequalities must target diverse factors, causes and ages.
For example, they found that in developed countries, the probability of males outliving females fell until the 1970s, after which it gradually increased. This change was mainly linked to smoking and other health behaviours.
Marital status and educational attainment also seem to be linked to the probability of men outliving women. In the US, the probability was 2% increased for married men, and 4% increased for men with a university degree.
Alvarez, J. A. et al. Probability of males to outlive females: an international comparison from 1751 to 2020. BMJ Open 3 August 2022 doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059964
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