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. Why do women live much longer than men today, and why has this advantage increased over time? There is only limited evidence and the evidence isn't sufficient to draw an absolute conclusion. While we are aware that there are biological, psychological, and environmental factors which all play a part in women who live longer than men, we don't know the extent to which each factor plays a role.

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

This chart is interesting in that it shows that, while the advantage for women exists everywhere, the country-specific differences are huge. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men; in Bhutan the difference is just half each year.

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In wealthy countries, the female advantage in longevity used to be smaller
Let's examine how the advantage of women in life expectancy has changed over time. The next chart compares the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two things stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US live much, much longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the advantage of women in life expectancy was extremely small however, it has grown significantly over time.

You can confirm that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, تحاميل مهبلية and Sweden.