Gender Differences in Life Expectancy and Leading Causes of Death in Women

By virtue of being female and living in the United States, you can plan on living 5 years longer than if you were male . In 2005, according to the Centers of Disease Control, the average life expectancy of a woman was 80.4 years and for a man it was 75.2 years. During that year, there were just under 2.5 million deaths in the U.S.

As women, we have it good. But we've also had it slightly better. There's always been a gender gap in life expectancy, and it has typically grown over time. From 1900 to the late 1970s, women have seen the gap in life expectancy rise in their favor from 2.0 years to 7.8 years. However, in recent decades we've declined, perhaps due to increasing mortality from conditions typically regarded as 'men's diseases' such as heart attack and stroke.

Want to improve your own longevity? Here's a list of the Top 10 Women's Health Issues and a link under each that offers recommendations on how to minimize your risk.