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. What is the reason women live much longer than men today and why does this benefit increase in the past? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't strong enough to make a definitive conclusion. We know that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, but we don't know exactly how strong the relative contribution of each of these factors is.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of their weight. But it is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. Others 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 ابر التخسيس women. As you can see, ابر التخسيس all countries are above the diagonal line of parity - it means that in all nations a newborn girl can expect to live longer than a newborn boy.1

This graph shows that although women have an advantage in all countries, the differences across countries can be substantial. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the difference is just half an hour.

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In wealthy countries, the women's advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's see how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The following chart shows the male and female life expectancies when they were born in the US from 1790 until 2014. Two aspects stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both men as well as women in the US are living 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 getting wider: Although the female advantage in life expectancy was once very small It has significantly increased with time.

By selecting 'Change Country in the chart, you will be able to check that these two points are applicable to the other countries having available data: Sweden, France and the UK.