Why Do Women Live 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's the reason women live longer than men? And how has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? The evidence is limited and we only have partial answers. We know there are biological, psychological, and علامات الحمل بولد environmental factors which all play a part in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

We know that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But this isn't due to the fact that certain non-biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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 be expected to live for longer than her brother.

This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be substantial. In Russia, women live 10 years more than men. In Bhutan, the difference is less that half a year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was less in rich countries as compared to the present.
We will now examine how the advantage of women in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Men and women in America have longer lives than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is widening: While the advantage of women in life expectancy used to be extremely small however, it has grown significantly with time.

When you click on the option "Change country by country' in the chart, you can verify that these two points are also applicable to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.