Objectives Assess the short-and long-term survival for patients who underwent isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and evaluate the impact of gender and age. Furthermore to assess the long-term survival in the CABG group compared to the general population. Design This study included 4044 consecutive patients who underwent isolated CABG at Oslo University Hospital, Ullevål, in Oslo, Norway in the time period from 01.01.2003 to 31.12.2015. Patient data was collected retrospectively from the quality register at the department. Information on survival status was obtained from the Norwegian National Registry. Life expectancy data for the general population was gained from Statistics Norway. Results Female patients were significantly older than male patients at the time of surgery (mean age 67.0 and 63.9 years respectively, p<0.001), and had significantly lower 30-day survival (mortality was 1.4 % and 0.6 % respectively, p=0.017). Male gender was independently associated with lower long-term survival (p=0.0037) in a multivariate analysis. Male patients aged less than 60 years also showed significantly lower long-term survival (SMR 1.84, 95 % CI 1.49-2.25) compared to the age-matched general population. Among patients older than 60 years, survival was similar to survival in the age-matched general population.