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 so more than men do today and why does this benefit increase over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're only able to provide some solutions. We know there are biological, behavioral and environmental factors that play an integral role in women's longevity more than males, it isn't clear what percentage each factor plays in.

We know that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However this isn't because of certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. 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 ابر التخسيس 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. We can see that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This means that a newborn girl from any country can anticipate to live longer than her younger brother.

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage exists across all countries, the cross-country differences are large. In Russia women live for 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan, ابر التخسيس the difference is less that half a year.

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In the richer countries, the longevity advantage for women used to be smaller
Let's examine how the advantage of women in longevity has changed with time. The chart below illustrates the gender-based and female-specific life expectancy at the birth in the US between 1790-2014. Two specific points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Women and men in America 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 used to be quite small, it has increased substantially over time.

You can check if these points are also applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.