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 main reason women are more likely to live longer than men? What is the reason the advantage has grown as time passes? The evidence is sketchy and we're left with only partial solutions. We know there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables that all play a role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure how much each one contributes.

In spite of the amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason why women live so much longer than men however not as previously, is to do with the fact that several significant non-biological elements have changed. What are the factors that are changing? 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 women. We can see that every country is above the diagonal parity line ; which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live for longer than a newborn boy.1

It is interesting to note that while the female advantage is present everywhere, علامات الحمل بولد country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than males. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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In rich countries the advantage of women in longevity was smaller
We will now examine how the gender advantage in longevity has changed over time. The next chart plots male and female life expectancies at birth in the US from 1790 to 2014. Two things stand out.

There is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's an ever-widening gap: female advantage in life expectancy used be very modest, but it grew substantially in the past century.

Using the option 'Change country by country' in the chart, you are able to check that these two points also apply to the other countries with available information: Sweden, France and the UK.