Women don’t live longer than men after all? Study challenges life expectancy misconceptions

Danish researchers have found that men have a high probability of outliving women, calling into question the conventional wisdom that women live longer than men.

Researchers in Denmark are challenging the conventional knowledge that women live longer than men with a recent statistical analysis spanning more than 250 years.

It is common knowledge that women tend to live longer than men, based on life expectancy. In 2020, Statistics Canada found that male life expectancy at birth was 79 years, while for women it was just under 84 years.

But life expectancy alone can conceal a lot about the actual mortality of humans.

“A blind interpretation of life expectancy differences can sometimes lead to a distorted perception of the actual inequalities (in lifespan),” researchers wrote in a study published Tuesday in British Medical Journal Open.

“Despite females having a higher life expectancy than males, not all females outlive all males. On the contrary, a sizeable portion of males might live longer than a sizeable portion of females, even if the life expectancy shows a female advantage,” reads the study.

After conducting a statistical analysis of demographic data from 199 countries spanning all continents between 1751 and 2020, scientists found that men have a high probability of outliving women, especially if they are married and have a university degree.

According to the analysis, between 25 and 50 per cent of men have outlived women, depending on the country and time period.

In other words, this data shows that one to two out of every four men have outlived a randomly paired woman for almost all points in time reviewed by the study.