Insee Première · July 2024 · n° 2005

Gaps in life expectancy between managers and blue-collar workers: 5 years for men, 3 years for women

Under the mortality conditions of 2020-2022, 35-year-old male managers lived on average 5.3 years longer than blue collar workers. This gap was smaller for women (3.4 years). Blue-collar workers were more than twice as likely as managers to die between 35 and 65, and 1.7 times as likely to die between 65 and 75. The gap in life expectancy between managers and blue-collar workers has decreased since the 1990s for men (-1.7 years), while it has moderately increased for women (+0.8 years).

The gap in life expectancy at 35 between higher education graduates and those without any certification was 8.0 years for men and 5.4 years for women. There was an education gradient for men: the higher the certification, the higher the life expectancy. The gap in life expectancy between those with and without any certification was clear among women, but differences among those with a certification remained limited.

Whatever their socio-professionnal group, women lived longer than men. Life expectancy was even slightly higher for blue-collar women than for male managers.