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 makes women live more than men do today, and why is this difference growing in the past? The evidence is sketchy and we have only limited solutions. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women live longer than men; however, we aren't sure how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

In spite of the precise amount of weight, we are aware that at least a portion of the reason women live so much longer than men today and not previously, is to be due to the fact that a number of important 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. 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. It is clear that every country is over the diagonal line of parity. This means that a newborn girl from any country can be expected to live for longer than her brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists in all countries, cross-country differences are large. In Russia, women live for 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan the gap is less that half a year.

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

There is an upward trend. Men and women in America live longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is a widening gap: The female advantage in terms of life expectancy used be extremely small but it increased substantially during the last century.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, confirm that the two points are applicable to other countries with available information: العاب زوجية Sweden, France and the UK.