Why Are Women Living 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 is the reason women are more likely to live longer than men? Why has this advantage gotten larger as time passes? The evidence is limited and we only have incomplete solutions. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which play a significant role in the longevity of women over males, we aren't sure the extent to which each factor plays a role.

We have learned that women are living longer than men, regardless of weight. However, this is not due to the fact that certain biological factors have changed. What are these factors that have changed? 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 all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her brothers.

This chart illustrates that, even though women enjoy an advantage everywhere, cross-country differences could be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than males; while in Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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In countries with high incomes, the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let's look at how female longevity advantage has changed over time. The chart below shows men and women's life expectancies at the birth in the US between 1790 to 2014. Two points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. as well as women in the US live much, much 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 كيفية إقامة علاقة بالصور women: female advantage in terms of life expectancy used to be quite small however, it has increased significantly in the past century.

You can check if these principles 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.