A report released by Movember in partnership with Penn Nursing’s Program for Men’s Health Equity highlights a critical, preventable health crisis: The majority of male deaths in the U.S. occur prematurely, before age 75.
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Penn Nursing’s Program for Men’s Health Equity has released a report, “The Real Face of Men’s Health,” which reveals the majority of male deaths in the U.S.—53%—occur prematurely, before age 75.
Movember released the report, which reveals that life expectancy among men in the U.S. is falling behind men in other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In 1980, the gap between U.S. men and the average of those in OECD countries was 1.2 years, but in 2023, U.S. men lived 4.5 years shorter lives than the OECD country average for men.
The report reveals that men are more than twice as likely to die from heart disease and more than twice as likely to die from accidents, motor vehicle crashes, and drug overdoses compared to women. Life expectancy for men in the U.S. in 2022 was 74.8 years, but it is more than 10 years lower for American Indian/Alaska Native men, and more than five years lower for non-Hispanic Black men. More than one in four men ages 15 to 34 reported feeling lonely “a lot” of the previous day; this is the highest among young men in any high-income country.
“The data does not just point to individual struggles—it shows ripple effects for families, communities, and the American economy. Layered on top of these challenges are stigmas that stop men from seeking help until it’s too late,” says the report’s lead-author Derek M. Griffith, the Risa Lavizzo-Mourey Population Health and Health Equity University Professor in Penn Nursing and the Perelman School of Medicine, and director of the Program for Men’s Health Equity.
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