Marriage Benefits Men's Life Expectancy More Than Women's

InnovationBig DataMarriage Benefits Men's Life Expectancy More Than Women'sByKatharina Buchholz,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Katharina Buchholz is a Statista journalist covering news with data. Follow AuthorMay 22, 2026, 11:33am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.A certain type of data point has recently caused much astonishment, confusion and also anger online. It is the finding that men benefit more from being married in terms of life expectancy than women do. In other words, than men live longer and healthier lives if they are supported by a spouse in doing so, while women don’t seem the same support in prolonging their length and quality of life.The notion that men rob years of life from their wives and basically tag it on to theirs is, however, not supported by (most) research on the topic. Yet, the differences in how men’s and women’s lives are affected by marriage or the lack thereof are still significant.Women tend to live longer and healthier lives than men for a variety of reasons, including greater health consciousness and a tendency to avoid risky behaviors more, but also genetic and hormonal factors. A study published in 2020 in the Journal SSM – Population Health, shows that at 65 years old, U.S. women were expected to live for an additional 19 to 21 years, while for U.S. men, this number only stood at around 16 to 18.5 years. Nevertheless, the devil is once again in the details and reveals itself when looking at the differences in marital status.Here, married men aged 65 gain almost 2.5 years of live expectancy over their unmarried counterparts of the same age, boosting their outlook on life significantly. The data shows how having a spouse brings the life expectancy of married men quite close to that of unmarried women — quite significant if one considers how fundamental the longer life span of women ha...