Why Do Women Have Longer Lives 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 longer than men, and why is this difference growing over time? We only have partial evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. Although we know that there are biological, psychological as well as environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over men, we don't know how much each factor contributes.

We have learned that women live longer than men, regardless of weight. But it is not because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. These are the factors that are changing. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others are more complicated. 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, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام 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. We can see that every country is over the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in all countries can be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage across all countries, differences between countries could be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less than half an hour.

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The advantage women had in life expectancy was smaller in developed countries as compared to the present.
We will now examine how the advantage of women in life expectancy has changed over time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy when they were born in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men and women in the United States live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, the gap is growing: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was extremely small but it has risen significantly over time.

If you select the option "Change country from the chart, you can check that these two points also apply to other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.