Life expectancy of men and women in Russia: a gap of 10.7 years and the forecast for 2026
A woman in Russia lives on average 78.7 years, a man 68 years. These are the latest published Rosstat data for 2023: the overall life expectancy then was 73.41 years, and the gender gap was 10.7 years. Rosstat has a demographic forecast for 2026: in the median scenario men will live to 69.36 years, women to 78.98. In short, a boy born today, with current mortality rates, will live a little more than ten years less than his twin sister. Below we will examine where this difference comes from, at what age it accumulates, and where in Russia men live the longest. All charts are interactive, links to Rosstat tables appear throughout the text.
How long men and women live in Russia by year
Life expectancy at birth, years:
| Year | Women | Men | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 76.43 | 65.31 | 11.12 |
| 2015 | 76.67 | 65.95 | 10.72 |
| 2016 | 77.01 | 66.54 | 10.47 |
| 2017 | 77.58 | 67.56 | 10.02 |
| 2018 | 77.74 | 67.82 | 9.92 |
| 2019 | 78.09 | 68.33 | 9.76 |
| 2020 | 76.38 | 66.65 | 9.73 |
| 2021 | 74.50 | 65.69 | 8.81 |
| 2022 | 77.77 | 67.57 | 10.20 |
| 2023 | 78.74 | 68.04 | 10.70 |
Before the pandemic the gap slowly narrowed: over five years from 2014 to 2019 it decreased by 1.36 years, because men increased faster than women. The Covid years hit both sexes, but in a strange way: in 2021 women lost more, and the gap shrank to a minimum of 8.81 years. It was not good news: COVID-19 hit the elderly harder, and among the elderly there are more women. In 2021, 1,279 thousand women and 1,163 thousand men died. As soon as mortality returned to normal, the gap grew again to 10.7 years, i.e. to the level of 2015.
Rows by sex are available in the table of life expectancy broken down by men and women. The Arctic zone is also shown there for comparison: men there lived on average 66 years in 2023, women 77.78.
What is life expectancy in 2026
Actual data for 2026 are not yet available, and even for 2024 they will not be published in the usual form: the Rosstat collection Social Position and Standard of Living of the Population states that information for 2024 is temporarily not released. Therefore, the query “life expectancy 2026” can honestly be answered only with a forecast. Rosstat provides it in three scenarios.
| Forecast scenario for 2026 | Total | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 73.52 | 68.54 | 78.38 |
| Medium | 74.26 | 69.36 | 78.98 |
| High | 75.51 | 70.68 | 80.06 |
According to the medium scenario, the gap narrows to 9.62 years by 2026 and to 7.35 years by 2045: men are expected to reach 75.89 years, women 83.24 years. The forecast is built without taking into account the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, as noted in the table itself.
All three scenarios by year are available on the life expectancy forecast chart.
At what age men fall behind
Ten years of difference do not come in old age. Look at the age-specific mortality rates for 2023 (how many people die per year per 1,000 people of the same age):
| Age | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| 20-24 | 0.4 | 2.0 |
| 30-34 | 1.1 | 4.4 |
| 40-44 | 2.7 | 8.7 |
| 50-54 | 4.6 | 13.2 |
| 60-64 | 9.3 | 26.1 |
| 70-74 | 23.0 | 49.2 |
At 20-24 a young man dies five times as often as his female peer. At 30-34, four times. By age 60 the ratio drops to about three to one, and only after 85 the picture reverses: 159.4 deceased women versus 148.3 men per thousand. But up to that age far fewer men survive.
For a family this means a simple thing: the main risk for a man falls at the age when he works, raises children and pays a mortgage. Hence the conclusion: in 2023, 910 thousand men and 855 thousand women died, although there are more women in the country, at the start of 2024 78.2 million versus 67.9. More about how this ratio changes with age was written in the article how many men and women are in Russia.
City and countryside
In the countryside the gap is larger. Men 20-24 in rural areas die with a rate of 2.9 per thousand, in the city 1.7. At 25-29, 4.1 versus 2.7. For women of the same ages the difference between city and countryside is barely noticeable: 0.5 versus 0.4 and 0.7 versus 0.6. All age groups for city and countryside are in the age-specific mortality rates table.
Why men live shorter lives than women
The answer is visible in the causes of death. Rosstat provides standardized rates where the effect of age composition is removed, so men and women can be compared directly. Data for 2023, per 100,000 people:
- diseases of the circulatory system: 534 for men, 293 for women;
- neoplasms: 202 and 109;
- external causes (injuries, poisonings, traffic accidents, murders, suicides): 177 and 30;
- diseases of the digestive organs: 79 and 43;
- diseases of the respiratory organs: 69 and 21.
The biggest divergence between the sexes is in external causes: almost six times. These explain the high mortality of young men. For comparison, the figure for men in Germany is 64, in Finland 85, in Estonia 116 (2021 data from the same mortality by cause table).
Part of the explanation is lifestyle. According to the 2024 sample health observation, women make up 48% of those who drank alcohol in the past year, meaning men and women drink about equally often. Among smoking women, only 22.5% do, the rest are men. There is a separate article on alcohol by year here.
Gap in Russia and other countries
Women live longer than men everywhere, but a ten‑year difference is rare. Data from the collection “Women and Men of Russia” (the year is given for each country, the latest available):
| Country | Year | Women | Men | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russia | 2023 | 78.7 | 68.0 | 10.7 |
| Belarus | 2019 | 79.4 | 69.3 | 10.1 |
| Latvia | 2022 | 79.6 | 69.8 | 9.8 |
| Kazakhstan | 2023 | 79.1 | 71.0 | 8.1 |
| Japan | 2021 | 87.6 | 81.5 | 6.1 |
| United States | 2021 | 79.3 | 73.5 | 5.8 |
| China | 2022 | 81.2 | 75.5 | 5.7 |
| Germany | 2021 | 83.3 | 78.4 | 4.9 |
| Tajikistan | 2023 | 78.2 | 75.2 | 3.0 |
Russian women live almost as long as American women. The country's lag in overall life expectancy is almost entirely created by men. All 42 countries are collected in the life expectancy by gender comparison table.
Where men live longest
By region, Rosstat publishes the expected remaining life expectancy for older men and women: how many years on average are left for those who have already reached this age. Across Russia as a whole in 2023 it is 17.7 years for men and 27.04 years for women. In 2005 it was 13.26 and 22.85, and in the disappointing 2021 it was 14.61 and 23.16.
The longest remaining for men is in Moscow (23.28 years), Dagestan (22.74) and Ingushetia (22.49). The shortest is in Zabaykalsky Krai (14.12) and Tuva (14.27). The difference between Moscow and Zabaykalsky for men is more than nine years.
The gender gap also depends on the region. The smallest is in Ingushetia: 5.26 years. The largest is in Chukotka: 13.3 years, where older women live on average another 29.02 years, and men 15.72. The full table by subjects for 2013-2023 is on the page expected remaining life expectancy in subjects, and the overall regional ranking by life expectancy at birth is on the page regional rankings. For individual regions it is convenient to view the pages Moscow and Dagestan.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average life expectancy of men in Russia?
68.04 years according to Rosstat data for 2023. According to the median forecast scenario, it will be 69.36 years in 2026.
How long do women live in Russia?
78.74 years in 2023. The median forecast for 2026 is 78.98 years, the high scenario 80.06.
By how many years do women live longer than men?
By 10.7 years according to the 2023 results. The smallest gap was in 2021, 8.81 years, but only because mortality of elderly women rose more sharply during the pandemic.
Why are there no data for 2024?
Rosstat temporarily does not publish life expectancy for 2024, as noted in the footnote to the table collection "Social Position and Standard of Living of the Population of Russia. 2025". Therefore the latest actual year is 2023, and for 2026 there is only a forecast.
Why do men die earlier?
The main reason is the high mortality of working‑age men. From external causes (injuries, poisonings, accidents) men die almost six times more often than women, from heart and vascular diseases almost twice as often. In the 20‑24 age group male mortality is five times higher.
In Brief
Women in Russia live 10.7 years longer than men: 78.74 years versus 68.04 in 2023. The gap is created in young and middle ages, when men die 4‑5 times more often, mainly from injuries, poisonings and heart diseases, and even more so in rural areas. According to Rosstat's forecast, the difference will slowly narrow: to 9.62 years in 2026 and 7.35 years by 2045. The smallest gap between men and women is in Ingushetia, the largest in Chukotka.