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 longer than men in the present and why does this benefit increase over time? The evidence is limited and we have only incomplete answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors all play a role in the fact that women are healthier than men; but we don't know exactly how significant the impact of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the precise amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason women live longer than men do today however not as previously, has to have to do with the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? 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. It is clear that all countries are above the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her brother.

It is interesting to note that although the female advantage exists across all countries, اوضاع الجماع the difference between countries is huge. In Russia women are 10 years older than men; in Bhutan the gap is just half one year.

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The advantage of women in life expectancy was smaller in rich countries than it is now.
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancy at birth in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend: Men and women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be very small however it increased dramatically over the last century.

If you select the option "Change country' on the chart, you are able to determine if these two points apply to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.