Sub-goal 5: Equal health

The goal is to achieve equal health. Women and men, and girls and boys, should have the same conditions for good health and be offered healthcare and social care on equal terms.

Why is it important to reduce health differences between women and men?

Good health is essential for both individuals and society. It is a prerequisite for people to be able to receive an education, work, support themselves and participate in society.

However, not everyone has the same opportunities to achieve good health. Socioeconomic circumstances, level of education, working environment, and a person's sex or gender identity are factors that affect health.

Women's and men's health is also affected by the healthcare and care they receive. The Government emphasises that both sex and gender-stereotypical norms affect health as well as healthcare. Gender-equal healthcare therefore needs to take biological differences and sex-specific needs into account in order to avoid medically unjustified differences between women and men.

Women report poorer health than men but live longer

Women are more likely than men to report health problems. This includes mental ill health, which is increasing most among girls and young women. The link between health and gender is clear, but factors such as age, disability, country of birth, income and education also affect women's and men's health.

Women live longer but rate their health as poorer and have more years with reduced ability to carry out everyday activities than men. Men have a shorter average life expectancy but rate their health as better and have fewer years with reduced ability to carry out everyday activities.

Although life expectancy in Sweden is increasing for both women and men, some groups are not keeping pace with this development. Life expectancy among women with lower levels of education is falling. An increase in the retirement age therefore risks having a negative impact on older women with lower levels of education.

Women seek healthcare more often than men

Women use 20 per cent more healthcare than men. A large part of this difference can be attributed to women using maternity and childbirth services. When reproductive and sex-specific healthcare is excluded, the difference falls to eight per cent, which is explained by women seeking more healthcare for mental health problems and musculoskeletal conditions. Women are more likely to seek care at primary care centres, while men have more hospital admissions, particularly in older age groups.

Men are generally less accustomed to seeking healthcare, more likely to take risks and have less healthy lifestyles than women. These are considered explanatory factors for why men are more likely to die in accidents and die earlier from several major diseases.

Gender norms affect health but can also influence the diagnosis and treatment women and men receive. Men are less likely to seek care for mental health problems and undergo more physical examinations than women, whose health problems risk being viewed as psychosomatic.

Mental ill health affects women and men differently 

Girls and women experience poor mental health, anxiety and stress to a greater extent than men, and are more often diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Women are also overrepresented among people on sick leave due to mental ill health. Women also account for the majority of sick leave overall. Women's sickness benefit incidence is almost twice as high as men's. In recent years, sickness absence has increased among both women and men.

The causes of stress-related sickness absence in female-dominated sectors are well documented and often stem from low control over the work situation combined with high demands at work. Women also perform more unpaid domestic and care work, which contributes to increased stress. In addition, women are exposed to violence in intimate relationships and sexual harassment to a significantly greater extent.

In 2024, 53 per cent of women aged 16–84 reported suffering from severe anxiety, worry or distress. Among men in the same age group, the figure was 36 per cent. Among young people aged 16–29, the proportions were higher: 75 and 45 per cent respectively.

While women are diagnosed with mental ill health more often than men, significantly more men than women die by suicide. This indicates that mental ill health among men is underdiagnosed.