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 makes women live more than men do today and how is this difference growing over time? The evidence is sketchy and we have only limited solutions. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental factors which play a significant role in women's longevity more than men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that a large portion of the reason why women live longer than men in the present, but not in the past, has to have to do with the fact that certain key non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. 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, العاب زوجية 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 every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl in every country can expect to live longer than her older brother.

The chart above shows that while the female advantage exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

__S.17__
__S.19__
The female advantage in life expectancy was smaller in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's now look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the time of birth in the US during the period 1790-2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Men as well as 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.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the advantage of women in terms of life expectancy was very small, it has increased substantially with time.

When you click on the option "Change country by country' in the chart, you will be able to confirm that the two points also apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.