Health statistics usually use data which have been age-adjusted to account for this difference when comparing females and males. All comparisons here are based on age-adjusted death rates. Under age 65, three times more men than women die from heart attacks. Men have a higher probability of developing cancer and don't survive as long once they've been diagnosed. Lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death for males, kills two and one-half times more men than woman.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death.
Melanoma, the cancer with the greatest increase in incidence since 1973, kills nearly twice as many men as woman. For males aged 1 to 44 years, accidents are the number one cause of death. Five times more males die by drowning. Over one and one-half as many men as women die from pneumonia and flu. For men ages 25 to 44, HIV infection is now the second leading cause of death and the number one killer in major cities.