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. Why do women live so longer than men, and why does this benefit increase over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women living longer than men, we don't know how much each factor contributes.

We are aware that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But this is not due to the fact that certain biological or 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. Certain are more complicated. For العاب زوجية 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line ; which means that in every country that a baby girl can be expected to live longer than a new boy.1

The chart above shows that although the female advantage is present everywhere, cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of only half a year.

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In the richer countries, the female advantage in longevity was previously smaller.
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancy at the birth in the US in the years 1790 until 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Women and men 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.

The gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy used to be extremely small however, it has grown significantly over time.

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