Women outlive men, but with fewer good years after 60: India study

India's rising life expectancy could be masking a troubling gap in the quality of life after 60, particularly for women and rural residents. An important new study measuring how many years older Indians can expect to live in good health, financial security and cognitive well-being finds that living longer does not necessarily mean living well for longer.

At 60, Indian men can expect to live another 17.5 years, but only 8.2 of these are likely to be good years. Women of the same age can expect to live longer – another 19 years – but just 5.7 of those years qualify as good, according to the study.

The divide is even sharper when gender and place of residence are considered together.

An urban man aged 60 can expect 10.2 good years, compared with just 4.6 years for a rural woman. Despite having nearly identical remaining life expectancies, the two groups differ by more than five years in the time they can expect to spend living well.

The findings raise questions about how India measures the gains of an ageing population – and whether its healthcare and social security systems are equipped to support people through the additional years they are living.

Published in Social Indicators Research, the study was conducted by researchers from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Princeton University and the University of Vienna.

It uses a relatively new measure called Years of Good Life (YoGL), which goes beyond conventional indicators such as life expectancy and income to assess whether people can live with a reasonable degree of independence, security and well-being.

“The findings are sobering,” lead researchers Ruchika Chakraborty and Srinivas Goli, both associated with IIPS, said.

The study finds that older adults in urban India can expect 9.2 years of good life after turning 60, compared with 6.1 years for those in rural areas. The differences also vary substantially across states, suggesting that the benefits of longer lives are not being shared equally.MEASURING GOOD YEARS

Developed by Wolfgang Lutz and colleagues, YoGL is grounded in economist Amartya Sen's capability approach, which focuses on what people are actually able to do and experience in their lives, rather than simply the resources they possess.

Under this framework, a year counts as a “good year” only when a person meets four conditions simultaneously: they are above the poverty line, do not have severe limitations in everyday activities, are free from cognitive impairment, and report positive life satisfaction.

In other words, a person who is financially secure but struggles to bathe, dress or get out of bed independently would not have that year counted as a good one. Nor would someone who is physically healthy but living in poverty or experiencing cognitive impairment. The measure captures how these disadvantages overlap, rather than allowing strength in one area to compensate for difficulties in another. It therefore offers a broader picture of ageing than indicators that track survival, income or health in isolation.

For their analysis, the researchers combined data from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI), a large-scale survey of older adults conducted in 2017-18, with mortality data from the Sample Registration System (SRS).

The analysis covered 66,606 people aged 45 and above in LASI, alongside SRS mortality data for 2015-19. Using the Sullivan method, the researchers constructed life tables to estimate years of good life for men and women across 21 major states, separately for rural and urban populations.

The Sullivan method combines information on mortality with the prevalence of health and well-being conditions at different ages to estimate how much of a person's remaining life is likely to be spent in a particular state.

The resulting estimates offer a more layered picture of ageing in India, revealing considerable differences not just between men and women, but also between people living in villages and cities, and across states.advertisementGENDER SHAPES AGEINGThe study finds that men and women are losing good years for different reasons.

For men, poor functional health – the ability to carry out everyday activities independently – is the most significant factor behind differences in YoGL across states. It accounts for about 45 per cent of the state-wise variation in men's estimates.

For women, cognitive health is the bigger factor, accounting for 46 per cent of the variation in good years across states.

The findings point to distinct challenges in ageing. Functional limitations can leave older adults dependent on others for basic tasks, while cognitive impairment can affect memory, reasoning and the ability to manage everyday life.

The researchers found a striking difference in the proportion of older adults meeting the study's cognitive-health threshold: 69 per cent of rural women cleared it, compared with 96 per cent of urban men.

The authors link women's cognitive disadvantage, in part, to historical inequalities in access to education. Schooling can help build cognitive reserve – the brain's ability to cope with age-related changes and disease - making educational disadvantages earlier in life relevant to well-being decades later.

This offers one possible explanation for why states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala perform comparatively well for older women. Investments in girls' education made decades ago may now be reflected in better cognitive health among women entering their sixties and seventies.

For older men, meanwhile, the findings underline the need to address functional decline, including through better access to rehabilitation and support for everyday activities.

The implications extend beyond medical treatment. If women are living longer but spending fewer of those years in good health and well-being, policies based on life expectancy alone risk overlooking disadvantages that accumulate over a lifetime.STATES SHOW WIDE GAPS

The states wise estimates reveal substantial differences in how well older Indians can expect to live, with some states performing very differently depending on gender and whether residents live in rural or urban areas.

Punjab records the highest YoGL for men at age 60, at 12.9 years. That amounts to 63 per cent of their remaining life expectancy.

Kerala, meanwhile, records the highest estimate for rural women, at 10.1 good years, or 46 per cent of their remaining life expectancy.

At the other end of the spectrum, Maharashtra ranks last among the 21 states studied on YoGL, despite ranking fourth on the Human Development Index (HDI). Rural women in the state can expect just 2.7 good years after 60 – less than 14 per cent of their remaining life expectancy.

West Bengal records the lowest YoGL for women overall, at 3.8 years. Bihar also performs poorly across groups, with even its urban residents recording only 7.5 good years.

Maharashtra's contrasting HDI and YoGL rankings illustrate how conventional development indicators may not capture the conditions in which older people spend their lives. A state's overall development gains do not necessarily mean those gains are shared equally across its population, or that older adults can maintain their independence and well-being.

For policymakers, these state-level differences offer a way to identify where ageing-related disadvantages are concentrated, rather than treating older Indians as a single, uniform group.RETHINKING ELDERLY CARE?

The researchers argue that YoGL could help governments design ageing policies around the needs of specific populations, rather than relying on broad categories such as “the elderly”.

The findings point to the need for greater attention to functional health, particularly for older men. Physiotherapy, assistive devices, home modifications, pain management and rehabilitation can help people maintain independence, but such support remains an underdeveloped part of elderly care in India.

For women, the cognitive-health findings underline the longer-term consequences of unequal access to education. Also, for women who are already older, opportunities for social engagement, literacy and community participation may help support cognitive well-being.

The study also finds that life satisfaction contributes relatively little to the variation in YoGL across states. Nearly 95 per cent of respondents reported positive life satisfaction, and the measure explained barely 3 per cent of the variation between states.

That does not mean life satisfaction is unimportant. Rather, the researchers caution that relying on satisfaction surveys alone could paint an overly reassuring picture of older people's lives, even when they face poverty, cognitive impairment or physical limitations.

There are few limitations to the study as well. It uses a single wave of LASI data, so it cannot establish whether differences between states are narrowing or widening over time. India's mortality data are also not disaggregated by education, caste or religion, leaving important inequalities outside the analysis. In addition, limitations in everyday activities are self-reported, which may introduce differences in how men and women assess their own abilities.

Despite these constraints, the researchers say YoGL could become a useful tool for monitoring ageing and well-being at the state level.

They suggest incorporating its four dimensions into national surveys and tracking good years alongside life expectancy through bodies such as NITI Aayog and state ageing missions.- EndsPublished By: Sumi DuttaPublished On: Sep 22, 2026 14:16 IST