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's the reason why women have a longer life span than men? What is the reason has this advantage gotten larger in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only incomplete answers. We know there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

It is known that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But this is not due to the fact that certain 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. Certain are more complicated. For صبغ الشعر بالاسود 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 صبغ الشعر بالاسود men and women. As we can see, all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences could be significant. In Russia women are 10 years older than men, while in Bhutan the gap is just half an hour.

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In rich countries the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's now look at the way that female advantages in longevity has changed with time. The chart below shows men and women's life expectancies at the birth in the US in the years 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US live a lot, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The second is that there is an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in life expectancy used be very modest however, it has increased significantly in the past century.

It is possible to verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries with information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.