Why Are Women Living Longer 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 live longer than men in the present, and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? The evidence is limited and we only have partial solutions. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women are healthier than men; however, we aren't sure how significant the impact of each of these factors is.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason women live so much longer than men today and not in the past, is to relate to the fact that several important non-biological aspects have changed. What are these changing factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Certain are more complicated. 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 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. It is clear that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her older brother.

It is interesting to note that, while the advantage for women exists across all countries, اوضاع الجماع the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the gap is just half one year.

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The female advantage in life expectancy was less in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's now look at how the female advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both genders living in America are living longer than they used to 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was extremely small however, it has grown significantly over time.

By selecting 'Change Country by country' in the chart, you can confirm that the two points apply to the other countries with available data: Sweden, France and the UK.