7 in 10 partnered women in France become widows after age 60
Nearly one in three women over 60 are widows in France. The figure is one in two women over age 75. Carole Bonnet (INED) and Julie Tréguier (DIW Berlin) analyze for the first time the duration of widowhood, a period often marked by solitude and the risk of economic vulnerability. Their research reveals that 70% of women in a couple at age 60 will experience widowhood, for an average of 13 years. This period amounts to nearly half of their remaining lifetimes, with considerable disparities by standard of living.
A reality that concerns a massive number of older women
Widowhood affects more women than men due to their longer life expectancy and to average age differences between partners, with men being older, on average. France had approximately 3.6 million widows and widowers age 60 and over in 2020, 81% of whom were women. That same year, 3.8 million people were receiving a survivor pension; in 2024 the total amount paid out in such pensions came to 38.7 billion euros, or 1.3% of France’s GDP.
Six in ten women over 60 have the legal status of surviving spouse upon their own deaths, as against only two in ten men. This difference is also due to a greater tendency among men to remarry after their spouse’s death.
An average of thirteen years as a widow
The researchers used life tables to simulate a woman’s risk of losing her partner and the subsequent duration of widowhood. They found that approximately 70% of partnered women (regardless of marital state) became widows at or after age 60. Under 2019 mortality conditions, the average duration of widowhood comes to 13 years, or 46% of remaining lifetime.
This duration has been relatively stable since 1995, after rising slightly between 1962 and 1995. Meanwhile, the proportion of remaining lifetime as a widow fell from 59% in 1962 to 46% in 2019 due to gains in life expectancy.
Relatively poor women live as widows for more than half of their old age
The study brings to light sharp disparities by standard of living. Women from the poorest households face an average of 14.1 years of widowhood—three years more than for women from the wealthiest households (11.4 years). For the first group, widowhood represents 57% of their life after age 60, as against 38% for the second group.
The risk of poverty among women from poor households, combined with their relatively low resources and survivor pensions, is more tenacious for these women, lasting a longer part of their life.
Perspectives : une baisse attendue d'ici 2070
Selon les projections démographiques de l'Insee, la réduction attendue des écarts d'espérance de vie entre femmes et hommes devrait entraîner une baisse de la durée moyenne de veuvage. D'ici 2070, celle-ci pourrait passer à 11 ans, permettant un allongement de la période de vie en couple.
Prospects: a narrower life expectancy gap expected by 2070
According to INSEE demographic projections, the expected narrowing of male-female life expectancy gaps should reduce the average duration of widowhood, which should fall to 11 years, thereby prolonging the period of partnered life.
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Two major related public policy issues
These findings call into question the ability of France’s social protection system to support women throughout this long period of life, particularly in the case of poorer women. Changes in couple arrangements also raise new questions: people in civil or free unions do not have access to survivor pensions, despite representing an increasing proportion of older-age couples. In the current French debate on retirement pension and survivor pension reform, this study offers unprecedented information on the real length of widowhood and associated inequalities, facts that are essential when it comes to adapting the country’s existing solidarity systems to current demographic and social realities.
Source: Seven in ten women over the age of 60 face an average of 13 years of widowhood, Carole Bonnet, Julie Tréguier, Population and Societies n° 639, December 2025
