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 much longer than men today, and why has this advantage increased over time? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only partial answers. We know that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer lives than men, but we don't know exactly how significant the impact of each factor is.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But it is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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, 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 العاب زوجية women. It is clear that every country is above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from any country can anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists everywhere, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the gap is less than half each year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in developed countries than it is now.
Let's examine how the gender advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The next chart compares the life expectancy of males and females when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both genders in the United States live longer than they were a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used to be quite small, but it grew substantially in the past century.

You can confirm that these are applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.