Study: Men Who Date Younger Women Live Longer

“What’s the best age gap in a relationship?"

This was the question recently posed by The Economist’s 1843 magazine, with the mag then parsing various studies and data, including life expectancy and divorce rates.

Their findings: the younger a man’s partner, the longer he's likely to live.

The report quoted a University of Stockholm study which concluded that men over 50 who had younger partners had a longer life expectancy than those dating within their age bracket. The Swedish study also found that the older a man’s spouse “the worse their survival chances, even after controlling for things like education and wealth”.

The Economist's report also quoted figures from Britain’s Office of National Statistics which showed that there was no correlation between a greater age gap between partners and an increased rate of divorce.

Bizarrely, however, it seems the benefits only apply to men.

Older women marrying younger men were more likely to divorce, according to Britain’s Office of National Statistics, while the Swedish study concluded that, for women, “the bigger the age gap, the worse their survival chances, regardless of whether they were younger or older.”