Men are much more likely to die from COVID-19 than women. This is true globally – where the death rate has been about 50% higher for men. Notably, this gap does not appear to be explained either by differences in the number of confirmed cases or in pre-existing conditions. With the pandemic cutting life expectancy of American men by more than two years, it is important to understand and mitigate risks associated with COVID-19 mortality among men.

Building on earlier work with Tiffany Ford from May 2020, “COVID-19 much more fatal for men, especially taking age into account,” we draw here on updated CDC data to examine the gender mortality gap by age, and over time in the U.S. Our main findings are:

  • The overall death rate for men is 1.6 times higher than the death rate for women;
  • The gap is widest in the middle of the age distribution, with 184 male deaths for every 100 female deaths.
  • As death rates have fallen, the gender gap has narrowed slightly
  • The gap is not explained by a higher number of cases among men, or differences in pre-existing conditions
  • In Georgia and Michigan, Black men have the highest death rates, followed by Black women
  • Improving access to care and addressing vaccine hesitancy, especially for Black men, should be a high priority

Read the full article about the gender gap in COVID-19 deaths by Richard V. Reeves and Beyond Deng at Brookings.