Overview
- Official life tables put girls’ life expectancy at about 83.2 years versus 78.5 for boys in Germany.
- Studies of monks and nuns show the gap narrows when living conditions are highly similar, underscoring environmental effects.
- Behavioral and occupational risks disproportionately borne by men—smoking, alcohol and hazardous work—raise mortality, according to WHO and OECD evidence.
- Biology likely contributes but does not account for the full gap, with researchers citing the second X chromosome and longer telomeres as plausible advantages.
- Longevity specialist Prof. Sandra Eifert warns that unrelieved stress accelerates women’s aging and says preventive and psychosocial care are underused.