Why Do Women Have Longer Lives Than Men

Everywhere in the world women live longer than men - but this was not always the case. The available data from rich countries shows that women didn't live longer than men in the 19th century. What is the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason the advantage has grown in the past? There isn't much evidence and we're only able to provide partial answers. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological as well as environmental factors which all play a part in women's longevity more than men, we don't know what percentage each factor plays in.

Independently of the exact number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason women live longer than men do today but not in the past, is to relate to the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Some are more complex. For example, there is evidence that in rich countries the female advantage increased in part because infectious diseases used to affect women disproportionately a century ago, so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, especially for زيوت تطويل الشعر survivors, ended up raising women's longevity disproportionately.

Everywhere in the world women tend to live longer than men
The first chart below shows life expectancy at birth for men and women. We can see that all countries are over the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists in all countries, global differences are significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the gap is just half one year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was much lower in countries with higher incomes than it is today.
Let's look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two aspects stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be very small however, it has grown significantly in the past.

You can confirm that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.