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. Why do women live so more than men do today, and why does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is limited and we're left with only limited answers. While we are aware that there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors which all play a part in women living longer than males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

Independently of the exact weight, we know that at least a portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men do today but not previously, has to be due to the fact that certain key non-biological factors have changed. These factors are changing. 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 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 diagonal parity line - it means that in all nations baby girls can expect to live for ابر التخسيس longer than a new boy.1

This chart illustrates that, although women have an advantage across all countries, differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half one year.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries as compared to the present.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancy at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Both genders in America live longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

There is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very small however, it has increased significantly during the last century.

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