[hardtke]

This data, unfortunately, is missing an important confounding variable besides male/female. In the US lifespan his highly correlated with income, and the trend is getting worse. "The gap in life expectancy between the richest 1% and poorest 1% of individuals was 14.6 years (95% CI, 14.4 to 14.8 years) for men and 10.1 years (95% CI, 9.9 to 10.3 years) for women. Second, inequality in life expectancy increased over time. Between 2001 and 2014, life expectancy increased by 2.34 years for men and 2.91 years for women in the top 5% of the income distribution, but increased by only 0.32 years for men and 0.04 years for women in the bottom 5% (P < .001 for the difference for both sexes)." [1]

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/

[anamax]

From the article: "The differences in life expectancy were correlated with health behaviors and local area characteristics."

"Health behaviors (rates of current smoking, obesity [defined as body mass index {calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared} ≥30], and exercise during the past month)"

[zeroonetwothree]

Hard to say in which direction the causation lies.

[layer8]

That’s actually a good point: People who die earlier due to genetics accumulate less wealth in their lifetime, and their children therefore inherit less. With that causality, people are poorer literally because they die earlier, rather than the other way around. ;)

[sudosysgen]

Isn't it the reverse for the vast majorit that live to see retirement?