In Taiwan, a clear gender difference emerges for rates of oropharyngeal carcinoma incidence. The purpose of this study was to identify the gender differences and clinical factors associated with oropharyngeal carcinoma survival rates in Taiwan. We analyzed the 5-year survival rates of 8114 subjects diagnosed with oropharyngeal carcinoma between 1987 and 1994. The Cox proportional-hazards model identified clinical characteristics for gender according to oropharyngeal carcinoma death and all-cause death outcomes. The 5-year survival rates were significantly lower for males than females (p < 0.0001). The adjusted hazard ratio of males versus females was 1.54 (95% CI: 1.36-1.74) for oropharyngeal carcinoma death and 1.44 (95% CI: 1.31-1.58) for all-cause death. Gender and other clinical characteristics (i.e. diagnostic age, anatomic site, morphologic type, and treatment modality) play important roles in oropharyngeal carcinoma survival. We suggested that Taiwanese males have high proportion of betel quid chewing and that this is associated with the gender differences.