The life expectancy gap between men and women is narrowing. It is a global phenomenon, which is observed throughout the world, but which has special relevance in Spain because it is the OECD country where women live the longest.
The data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) are revealing: if in 1991 the life expectancy at birth of girls was 7.2 years higher than that of boys, in 2022 that difference did not reach 5.4. And the projections on the main demographic indicators published by the INE place it at around 4 years by 2071.
What is the reason why the incidence of mortality in both sexes is changing and tending to converge? “Verifying the fact is easy but explaining the causes is very complex, because survival is a demographic phenomenon in which many factors intervene, from biological factors to those that determine how we live, behaviors, attitudes...,” warns Julio Pérez. , demographer and CSIC researcher.
There are many social, economic, scientific and technological transformations experienced in recent decades that may have caused changes in male and female mortality. “There are factors that are congenital; male mortality is slightly higher at all ages – even intrauterine mortality is higher – and that is why, although more boys are born than girls, the population of both sexes becomes equal after the age of 40 and, from the age of 80, there are practically twice as many women as men,” says Pérez.
And it explains that, beyond this biological or genetic factor, the greater female life expectancy was historically linked to the fact that men were subject to greater risks: from their participation in combat or military service to the performance of jobs with a higher risk. of danger such as construction or driving vehicles, work stress or practicing unhealthy habits such as smoking or alcohol consumption.
But the changes in gender roles and the advances in social equality in recent decades, with the massive incorporation of women into the world of work, their participation in all types of professions and activities and the equalization of behaviors and consumption habits between both Sexes have also contributed to standardizing risks and approximating mortality rates, reducing the longevity gap between them.
The difference is not closing because women now live less because they work, drive, smoke or practice risky sports like men. Both men and women have expanded the number of years they can expect to live in recent decades and are expected to continue doing so, but to a greater extent than women.
Specifically, life expectancy at birth for men, which in 1991 was 73.5 years, stood at 80.36 years in 2022, which implies a gain of almost seven years. For women, life expectancy has gone from 80.6 to 85.74: an increase of 5.1 years.
Both have benefited from improvements in treatment and access to medical care, technological advances, increased prevention programs, increased awareness of mental health, and improved education, all factors they contribute to reducing mortality.
But the masculinity-to-death ratio - the number of male deaths for every one hundred female deaths - has decreased significantly in the last three decades, going from 112.9 at the beginning of the 1990s to 102.1 in 2020, which indicates that all these improvements and medical advances do not affect both sexes equally.
“With a more or less assured long life, factors that were not so relevant before, such as the pathologies specific to each of the sexes, gain relevance: for example, advances in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases - which were a very common cause. of death in men aged 50-60 years - have been enormous; and now tumors and dementia - which affect more at advanced ages, where the number of women is greater - are the new majority causes of death," says Pérez.
However, the demographer emphasizes that, while 15 years ago it was thought that the difference in life expectancy between men and women would be reduced greatly and quickly, there is now more skepticism regarding the indications that "women have a better biological design because "They are key in the reproduction of the species and their organism has greater resilience."
In this sense, he points out that precisely the drop in fertility can be a driving factor for the great female longevity in Spain, since having fewer children has reduced deaths due to problems derived from childbirth.
For all this, Pérez emphasizes that in the future, life expectancy will be very dependent on the person's behaviors and life habits and not so much on whether one is born a man or a woman, although it will not be equal. “With such a long survival, having exercised when you were young and maintaining it throughout your life, whether you have smoked or not, how you eat, having friends... are going to become increasingly decisive as other risks become more important.” being resolved with drugs,” he concludes.
In this sense, if instead of focusing on longevity, on the years one can expect to live, one focuses on the years one can expect to live free of disease and dependency, the gender gap is diluted.
In 2021, the last year for which information is available, life expectancy in good health at birth for women was 62.6 years and for men it was 63. And at age 65, that difference remains: 10.3 years for them compared to 10.7 years for them.
This means that, at 65 years of age, men can hope to enjoy more than half (55.7%) of the time they have left to live in good health conditions, while women only 43.8%.
