The Washington State Department of Health produces life expectancy estimates for males and females. 2020 is the most recent year for which they’ve produced them. Males born in 2020 were expected to live on average 77.6 years, while females were expected to live 82.2 years. That’s a difference of 4.6 years.
Most people know that men live shorter lives on average than women. We typically accept it as inevitable. Aren’t men’s shorter lifespans as natural to our species as women’s shorter bodies? No, not exactly.
Significant change over a 20-year period
1980 is the year the Washington State Department of Health began producing separate life expectancy estimates for males and females. We graphed each of the estimates from 1980 through 2020, and we also graphed the annual difference between the estimates — the life expectancy gender gap.
The graphs reveal that the difference in expected lifespan for newborn boys and newborn girls gradually narrowed from seven years in 1980 to four and a half years in 2000. Around the start of the twenty-first century, however, the gap stopped closing. Each year since 2000 the Department of Health has estimated that the lives of newborn males will be between four and five years shorter than the lives of their female peers.
The physical and mental health of males is one of the focus areas for the proposed Washington State Commission on Boys and Men. Here are a couple questions the commission might choose to look into regarding male longevity:
- After shrinking fairly rapidly between 1980 and 2000, why has the difference in expected lifespan between males and females stopped decreasing?
- Is it reasonable to aspire for Washington’s men to die no sooner than women on average? If eliminating the life expectancy gender gap entirely is unrealistic, could achieving gender equity and equality in the realm of health mean setting a goal of males dying, say, two years earlier than females, rather than the current four and a half years?
How does Washington’s life expectancy gender gap compare to other states?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued a report in 2022 with state-by-state life expectancy estimates for those born in 2020.
Hawaii ranked #1 in the nation for overall life expectancy at 80.7 years. Washington came in second at 79.2 years. Barely behind Washington were Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. The three states with the lowest overall life expectancies were Louisiana, West Virginia, and Mississippi (73.1, 72.8, and 71.9 years).
Comparing the life expectancies of males born in each state, Hawaii again ranked #1 and Washington ranked #2 (77.6 years and 76.9 years) (Note: The life expectancy estimates produced by the Washington State Department of Health and the CDC differ because they use different methodologies. That’s why the CDC’s estimate for males in Washington in 2020 was 76.9 years whereas DOH’s estimate was 77.6 years.) Minnesota’s males were in third place at 76.8 years, followed by Utah’s at 76.7 years. The states whose male newborns were expected to live the shortest lives were the same states as above — Louisiana, West Virginia, and Mississippi (69.9, 69.8, and 68.6 years).
Washington was tied with Idaho for the third smallest difference between male and female life expectancy with a 4.7-year gap. Utah had the smallest life expectancy gender gap at 3.9 years, while the states where women live the longest compared to men were New Mexico, Mississippi and the District of Columbia (6.6, 6.6, and 7.0 years).
Washingtonians live long lives
It is indeed worthwhile to point out that Washington’s life expectancy gender gap has nearly frozen since 2000, and to ponder efforts to improve male longevity. We should also celebrate that Washington’s boys (and girls too) are expected to live longer lives than those in almost any other state.
See related: A Look at Washington’s Suicide Gender Gap from 1960 to 2020