The life expectancy gap started to grow again from 2016 to the present time.Domepitipat/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
In the chart below, the top of each bar represents female life expectancy and the bottom is male life expectancy, both as measured from birth. The length of each bar is the gap in life expectancy between the sexes in that year.
For the past century, Canadian women have had a longer life expectancy than men. but the gap between them has been far from consistent. The gap was narrow in the 1920s (which is not shown in the chart above), and then it gradually expanded to 7.1 years by 1982 before starting to narrow. The smallest gap – 4.1 years – occurred in 2016. Today, it is 4.5 years.
In the 1920s, death during childbirth was still fairly common, which explains the smaller gap at the time. By 1960, this problem was practically eliminated. At the same time, smoking was much more common amongst men and a much smaller percentage of women worked outside the home, meaning they were less exposed to the stresses of the working world. Men and women are much more alike now with respect to smoking and participation in the labour force, which further accounts for the smaller gap.
The life expectancy gap started to grow again from 2016 to the present time. One possible explanation is the opioid crisis, which has disproportionately affected men. COVID might also have resulted in higher mortality rates for men versus women.
The question is why is there still a life expectancy gap of more than four years today? This phenomenon, incidentally, is true in almost every country in the world. It would seem that biological differences are the biggest reason. That extra X chromosome apparently provides women with additional protection.
The takeaway for retirees is that women might need to save a bigger percentage of their pay for retirement than men. Also, couples should pay attention to the survivor income benefits that are attached to each source of retirement income. Neither CPP nor OAS provides much in the way of survivor income.
Frederick Vettese is former chief actuary of Morneau Shepell and author of the PERC retirement calculator (perc-pro.ca)