Falling life expectancy among US men

The gender life expectancy gap is shrinking in much of world, with the current global gap between men and women being 5.2 years.1 In contrast, the difference in life expectancy between men and women in the US is widening, with men now dying on average six years before women.2 The difference has been growing over the past decade, from 4.8 years in 2010 to 5.9 years in 2021.3 Indeed, the gap in the US stands out for increasing even as overall life expectancy is falling.

The gap between women’s and men’s life expectancy is driven by multiple factors, including biology but particularly cultural norms and structural factors such as conflict and poverty.4 In the US, much of the gap is driven by men’s disproportionately higher rates of suicide and drug overdose—what have been called, “deaths of despair.”5

In addition, men’s morbidity and mortality in the US is …