# widows

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows/113685>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 12, 2002, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows/113685 "2002-06-12T18:45:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows/113685/1 "2002-06-12T18:45:32Z")

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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?

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**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows/113685/2 "2002-06-12T19:10:10Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![OldBroad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@OldBroad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldBroad)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows/113685/3 "2002-06-12T19:45:14Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows/113685/4 "2002-06-12T20:22:36Z")

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nitpick:

all widows are women.  
men are widowers.

but, I knew what you meant.  
I would have to agree with Telemark and Oldbroad.

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows/113685/5 "2002-06-13T20:43:19Z")

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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.