Income and social status have an increasing effect on life expectancy in Germany. On average, men with very low retirement pay die five years earlier than those who are much better off. Poverty shortens life. According to a study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, this correlation is also very clear for Germany. Their analysis shows that the gap between rich and poor in life expectancy has grown significantly over the past 20 years. And there are still differences between East and West. Life expectancy of poor and rich people is diverging more and more in Germany. This can clearly be seen from pension entitlements and expected lifespan of older men. 65-year old men with very high retirement benefits can expect on average to live for another 19 years, while men in the lowest of five income groups will on average not live to see their 80th birthday. These men had only 15 years of life left at age 65, which is four years less than for the rich. In 1997 this gap was only three years, but by 2016 it had widened to more than five years. This is the result of a new study by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) that has been published by MPIDR scientists Georg Wenau, Pavel Grigoriev and Vladimir Shkolnikov in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.