Why 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 longer than men, and why has this advantage increased over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence is not sufficient to support an unambiguous conclusion. We know there are biological, behavioral as well as environmental factors that play an integral role in women living longer than males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

We have learned that women are living longer than males, regardless of weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these new factors? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, اوضاع الجماع like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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. We can see that every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in all countries can expect to live longer than her brother.

The chart below shows that although there is a women's advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males; while in Bhutan the gap is just half a year.

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In rich countries the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed over time. The following chart shows the men and women's life expectancies at the time of birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two specific points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend: Men and women in the US are living much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was tiny, it has increased substantially in the past.

By selecting 'Change Country' on the chart, you can verify that these two points are also applicable to other countries that have available data: اوضاع الجماع (Glorynote.com) Sweden, France and the UK.