Utah's one narrow gender gap: life expectancy

Utah has the nation's smallest difference in life expectancy between men and women, a new report shows.

The intrigue: By many metrics — wages , educational attainment and representation in politics and board rooms , for example — Utah's gender gap is among the nation's worst.

• Life expectancy is one metric where women universally fare better than men.

By the numbers: Utah girls born in 2021 were expected to live an average 80.2 years, 3.9 years longer than men, per a new CDC analysis .

• 65-year-old women in Utah were likely to live another 19.7 years, on average, with men surviving another 17.9 years — a gap of 1.8 years.

Zoom out: Nationally, the gender gap is 5.8 years at birth for people born in 2021 and 2.7 years at age 65, with women living longer than men in every state.

The big picture: Utahns enjoy a relatively high life expectancy across the board, ranking No. 12 at birth and No. 16 at age 65.

Yes, but: Men are the ones pulling up the average ranking, especially among older Utahns.

• 65-year-old men had the nation's 8th highest life expectancy, while women here ranked No. 25.

State of play: Smaller gender gaps correlated with longer overall life expectancies across the nation.

Context: Life expectancy nationwide fell by 0.6 years between 2020 and 2021, from 77 to 76.4, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick reports .

• That's largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and drug overdoses, researchers wrote.
• Utah saw a smaller decline of 0.4 years, likely thanks to the state's overall good health , young average age and low rates of smoking and obesity — all protective factors against serious illness from COVID obesity — all protective factors against serious illness from COVID.

How it works: The findings are based on a combination of mortality statistics and Census and Medicare data.