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 live much longer than men today and why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? The evidence isn't conclusive and we only have partial solutions. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors contribute to the fact that women have longer life spans than men, However, we're not sure how strong the relative contribution of each factor is.

We know that women live longer than men, regardless of their weight. However it is not due to the fact that certain biological or non-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. Others are more complicated. 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 we can see, every country is above the diagonal line of parity - this means that in all countries the newborn girl is likely to live longer than a new boy.1

This chart is interesting in that it shows that the advantage of women exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less than half a calendar year.

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In countries with high incomes, the advantage of women in longevity used to be smaller
Let's examine how the female longevity advantage has changed in the course of time. The next chart compares male and female life expectancies at birth in the US during the time period between 1790 and 2014. Two distinct points stand out.

First, there's an upward trend. Men and women in the US are living much, افضل شامبو وبلسم much longer today than a century 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 used to be very small but it has risen significantly with time.

When you click on the option "Change country in the chart, confirm that the two points also apply to the other countries having available information: Sweden, France and the UK.