Why are most widows women?
I’m talking about elderly folks, say, over 65.
I see so many elderly women who are widows, much more proportionatily than statistics would predict.
Did women usually marry men much older than themselves or do women really DO live longer than men?
Women live on average longer than men. Don’t know the statistics about married vs unmarried, but a google search should find you some quick answers.
Add to that the fact that in most marriages, the man is older than the woman.
IMHO, there’s also the number of men who don’t see a doctor until it’s too late.
nitpick:
all widows are women.
men are widowers.
but, I knew what you meant.
I would have to agree with Telemark and Oldbroad.
Factor #3, a widower might more easily remarry, given the relatively higher availability of women. In theory, all widowers could remmary and leave a sizable number of widows. Widows, OTOH, are competing for a scarcer resource.
I suspect the historical ratios are about to be swamped by the large number of aging divorced folk.