If you look at the raw numbers from the CDC, things seem like they're finally looking up. After a brutal couple of years where American longevity basically fell off a cliff, the average lifespan for a man in the United States has started to claw its way back. As of the most recent 2023-2024 final data releases, a newborn male in the U.S. can expect to live about 74.8 years.
That’s a full year better than the 73.5 years we saw in 2021. Progress? Sure. But honestly, it’s a bit of a "glass half empty" situation.
We are still living in a country where men die nearly six years sooner than women. And compared to other wealthy nations like Japan or Switzerland, where men regularly cruise into their 80s, the U.S. is lagging. It’s not just one thing—it’s a messy mix of heart disease, "deaths of despair," and a healthcare system that is great at fixing you once you're broken but terrible at keeping you from breaking in the first place.
The 5.8-year gender gap: Why men are trailing
The biological differences between men and women exist, but they don't explain a six-year gap. Most experts, including Dr. Brandon Yan from UCSF, point toward "manhood" as a bit of a health hazard. Men are less likely to visit a doctor for a checkup. They’re more likely to engage in risky behaviors.
Think about it. Who is more likely to skip a blood pressure screening or ignore a weird pain in their chest? Usually, it's the guys.
The gap actually widened significantly during the pandemic. In 2019, the difference was about 5.1 years. By 2021, it hit 5.8 years—the widest we’ve seen since the mid-90s. Even as we move into 2026, that disparity hasn't fully snapped back to "normal."
The "Big Three" killing American men
If you want to know why that average lifespan for a man in the United States isn't higher, you have to look at the death certificates.
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- Heart Disease: Still the king. It kills more men than anything else.
- Cancer: Specifically lung, prostate, and colorectal.
- Unintentional Injuries: This is a polite way of saying drug overdoses and car crashes.
The fentanyl factor and "deaths of despair"
This is the part that’s actually terrifying. While heart disease usually hits older men, the U.S. has a massive problem with younger and middle-aged men dying from overdoses and suicide.
Case in point: fentanyl.
In 2022 alone, unintentional fentanyl overdoses claimed over 70,000 lives. These aren't 80-year-olds; these are 25-to-45-year-olds. When a 30-year-old dies, it drags down the statistical average lifespan for a man in the United States much harder than when an 85-year-old passes away.
We also have a suicide problem. Men in the U.S. die by suicide at a rate nearly four times higher than women. There’s a specific kind of isolation that seems to hit American men hard, especially in rural areas or places where the local economy has collapsed. Anne Case and Angus Deaton, the Princeton economists who coined the term "deaths of despair," argue that the loss of stable, middle-class jobs for men without college degrees has created a literal health crisis.
Geography and the "Birthplace Lottery"
Where you live in the States might matter more than your DNA. If you’re a man in Hawaii, you’re looking at an average life expectancy of nearly 80. If you’re in Mississippi or West Virginia? That number can drop as low as 70 or 71.
That is a decade-long difference just by crossing state lines.
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- Top Tier: Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut.
- Bottom Tier: Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas.
It’s not just the weather. It’s access to healthcare, smoking rates, and the "Strokeland" effect—a belt across the Southeast where diet and lack of exercise create a perfect storm for cardiovascular failure.
The Wealth Gap is a Life Gap
The most uncomfortable truth about the average lifespan for a man in the United States is the price tag.
If you are in the top 20% of earners, you are likely to live about 12 to 15 years longer than a man in the bottom 20%. Money buys better food, less stress, safer neighborhoods, and—crucially—better insurance. A study published in JAMA showed that for the poorest Americans, life expectancy hasn't really improved in decades, while the wealthy just keep trending upward.
What about race?
The numbers vary wildly here too. Non-Hispanic Asian men have the highest life expectancy in the U.S. (often exceeding 82 years). Meanwhile, American Indian and Alaska Native men have seen their averages gutted by COVID-19 and the opioid crisis, with some estimates putting their average lifespan in the mid-60s. Black men also face a significant disadvantage, though the gap between Black and White male life expectancy has narrowed slightly over the last 20 years.
Can we actually fix this?
It’s easy to get cynical, but the "rebound" in 2023 shows that we aren't totally doomed. COVID-19 dropping from the 4th leading cause of death to the 10th was huge.
But we can't just wait for pandemics to end. To move the needle on the average lifespan for a man in the United States, we have to deal with the stuff that happens every day.
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- Blood Pressure: Half of U.S. men have hypertension. Only a fraction have it under control.
- The Loneliness Epidemic: Men need social circles. Isolation is as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
- Harm Reduction: We have to get serious about Narcan and addiction treatment if we want to stop the "young man" mortality rate.
Actionable steps for the road ahead
If you're a man looking at these stats and feeling a bit uneasy, you should be. But you aren't a statistic. You can't control the national economy, but you can change your personal trajectory.
Schedule a physical today. No, really. Most of the things that kill men—high blood pressure, high cholesterol, early-stage colon cancer—are silent. You won't feel them until it’s late in the game.
Get a screening for colorectal cancer. The guidelines recently dropped to age 45. If you're 45 or older and haven't had a colonoscopy or a Cologuard test, you're flying blind.
Focus on "The Big Four" metrics. Forget the scale for a second and look at your blood pressure, your A1C (blood sugar), your LDL cholesterol, and your waist circumference. Keeping these in a healthy range is the closest thing we have to a "fountain of youth" in modern medicine.
Build a "Third Place." Find a hobby, a gym, a church, or a volunteer group. Men who have strong social ties live longer, recover from surgery faster, and have lower rates of cognitive decline. Longevity isn't just about the heart; it’s about the head, too.