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 makes women live much longer than men today and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only some solutions. We know there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors that all play a role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor تحاميل مهبلية plays in.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. These variables are evolving. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues that are more intricate. 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. We can see that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from every country could expect to live longer than her brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists everywhere, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
The advantage of women in life expectancy was less in rich countries than it is today.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The chart below shows gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US are living much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is increasing: While the advantage of women in life expectancy was tiny however, it has grown significantly in the past.

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