On average, more than one in five men are still dying between the ages 16 and 65, and more than two in five before the age of 75 – with death rates amongst men in the poorest areas of the country being even worse.

Heart disease and cancer

• Men are still more likely to die of circulatory disease and cancer.
• 75% of premature deaths from coronary heart disease are male.
• Men have a 37% higher risk of dying from cancer and a 67% higher chance of dying from cancers that affect both men and women (Excluding breast cancer and those cancers that affect either women only or men only).

Diabetes

Middle-aged men are twice as likely to have diabetes as women – and twice as likely not to know they have diabetes.

Suicide

Four in five suicides are by men – suicide is the biggest cause of death for men under 35 and there has been a sharp increase in the rate among men aged 35-64.

Lifestyle

Men are more likely than women to:

• smoke, smoke more cigarettes per day and smoke hand-rolled tobacco
• eat too much salt
• eat too much red and processed meat
• eat too little fruit and too few vegetables
• drink alcohol and drink at hazardous levels. Men are twice as likely to have liver disease.