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 live longer than men? And why does this benefit increase in the past? The evidence is limited and we're left with only incomplete answers. Although we know that there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables that all play a role in the longevity of women over men, we do not know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women live longer than males, regardless of weight. But, this is not because of certain non-biological factors have changed. These factors 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. As you can see, all countries are above the diagonal parity line , which means that in every country the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a newborn boy.1

The chart below shows that although women have an advantage throughout the world, the differences between countries can be significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the difference is less than half an hour.

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The advantage for women in terms of life expectancy was lower in the richer countries than it is today.
We will now examine the way that female advantages in terms of longevity has changed over time. The next chart shows male and ابر التخسيس (just click the next webpage) female life expectancy at birth in the US between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

There is an upward trend. Both men and women in the US have a much longer life span longer today than a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

Second, there's an increase in the gap between men and women: female advantage in life expectancy used be very small, but it grew substantially in the past century.

It is possible to verify that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries that have data by selecting the "Change country" option on the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.